
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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— 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 














































Uni 


Tom Conner's Station 


Page 325 







THE ARNOLD-FAMILY SERIES, No. 1. 


THE 


ARNOLD FAMILY 



MARY C. MILLER, 

Author op “Basket op Barley Loaves,” “IIioh 
Mountain Apart,” etc., etc. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

No. 1334 Chestnut Street. 


COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 


Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers , Philada. 


>» 


TO 

Cfje intern oil) 

OP 

MY FATHER, 

WHO FAITHFULLY INSTRUCTED ME IN THE CATECHISM, 

AND TO 

THE PASTOR OF MY CHILDHOOD, 

WHO SUPPLEMENTED THE HOME INSTRUCTION, 

THESE LITTLE BOOKS ARE 


DEDICATED . 




CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Opening Scene 9 

CHAPTER II. 

A Catechism Lesson 21 

CHAPTER III. 

The Catacombs . 37 

CHAPTER IV. 

Sledding with Judge Green 46 

• CHAPTER V. 

Prophet, Priest and King 63 

CHAPTER VI. 

Christ our King 80 

CHAPTER VII. 

Sad News from India 91 

5 


6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

The Exaltation 103 

• CHAPTER IX. 

Kitty Lyle’s Visit Ill 

CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Arnold’s Story 134 

CHAPTER XI. 

The New-comer from China 151 

CHAPTER XII. 

About Mw*oi Ling... 165 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Eddie and his Temper 175 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Chinese Temples and Worship 187 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Mission-Band 207 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Chinese Customs 229 

CHAPTER XVn. 

Mrs. Snowden’s Last Day 243 


CONTENTS. 


7 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

PAGE 

In the Annex 261 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Charlie’s Plans 270 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Young Runaways 277 

CHAPTER XXI. 

A Sorrowful Home 293 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Enjoying Life in Boston 302 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Fifth Commandment 318 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Thought of the Heart 335 * 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Lost Bag comes Home 345 


. 









THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE OPENING SCENE. 

T HE curtains were drawn for the evening 
and the student’s lamp was lighted. 
Mamma was busy with her sewing, papa 
with his newspaper. The folding-doors were 
closed. Where were the children? 

Now and then mamma looked toward the 
doors, as if she expected to see them open. 
What were the children doing? Perhaps 
we will find out before long. 

Mamma heard voices, and whenever they 
grew louder than usual she glanced from her 
sewing to the doors. Sometimes she looked 
at papa, who seemed to hear and see nothing 
but that fresh evening paper. What do you 
think the children were doing? Getting 


10 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


tableaux ready, did you say? Wait a lit- 
tle longer and you will know all. 

Bang ! 

“What was that, Lucretia?” asked Mr. 
Arnold, starting suddenly as something came 
against the folding-doors. 

“ Charlie studying his Catechism,” replied 
the lady, laughing as she spoke. 

“ Studying his Catechism ? Is that the 
way he does it?” 

Muttering sounds came from the back 
parlor, and while father and mother lis- 
tened the voices grew louder, until they 
heard Charlie say, “ I won’t study it ! I 
hate it!” 

When Mr. Arnold heard that he rose 
hastily, and, opening the folding-doors, dis- 
closed — a tableau ! 

A little girl about ten years old sat on a 
hassock near the stove. She held in her 
hand a ragged Catechism. As papa opened 
the door she looked up, and traces of tears 
could plainly be seen. Maggie at play was 
a handsome girl. Her eyes were bright 
and her long ringlets were pretty. But now 
her face wore a sorrowful expression ; even a 


THE OPENING SCENE. 11 

little pout was visible. Certainly, she did 
not look as well as usual. 

Beside the table sat Josie, a blue-eyed girl 
with pleasant face, though not pretty. Her 
closed Catechism lay on the table. 

At the opposite side of the table sat Char- 
lie. How sullen he looked ! Papa looked 
at each one, but he looked longest at Char- 
lie. Then he glanced on the floor and saw 
Charlie’s slipper, and near it lay his Cate- 
chism. 

“What does this mean, Charlie?” papa 
said in a tone his little boy always dreaded 
to hear. “ What did you throw against the 
door?” 

“ His shoe, father, and his Catechism too,” 
said Josie. 

“ Well, father,” Charlie began, “ I can’t 
help it. You know I don’t understand a 
word of it. And Maggie hates it as much 
as I do, only she won’t say so ; but she told 
me so herself.” 

“ Is that true, my daughter ?” gravely in- 
quired Mr. Arnold. 

“ Oh, papa, it’s awful hard and dry,” sor- 
rowfully replied the little maiden. 


12 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


After looking thoughtfully upon the 
group the father began pacing the floor, 
and silence fell upon them all. Both girls 
tried to study, but Charlie’s Catechism re- 
mained where he had thrown it, while he 
pushed his feet back and forth upon the 
carpet. 

At length Mr. Arnold said, “ What shall 
we do, wife? I cannot bear to have the 
children act so over that beautiful Cate- 
chism.” 

“ Beautiful !” muttered Charlie in a tone 
loud enough to be overheard ; “ I shouldn’t 
say so.” 

“ I want them to learn it and love it.” 

“ I can’t,” exclaimed the boy. 

“ Charlie, come here.” 

The boy came slowly. 

“ You may all come in here, and need not 
study any more this evening.” 

“ I know mine,” said Josephine. 

“ When will Charlie and I learn ours if 
we don’t now ?” inquired Maggie, who was 
generally anxious to do what she knew was 
right. 

“ I will help you in the morning, Maggie,” 


THE OPENING SCENE. 


13 


replied her father. “ You are all out of sorts 
now. And indeed I do not think late Sat- 
urday evening is a good time to study ; you 
are too tired after playing all day.” 

“ Papa’s right,” said Maggie with the air 
of a judge. 

This made all laugh but Charlie. 

“Why don’t you study it the first thing 
on Saturday morning, Puss?” inquired her 
father, taking her on his knee as he spoke. 

“ I do, papa, always — that is, when mam- 
ma makes me.” 

“And why didn’t mamma make you this 
morning ?” asked her father. 

“ Because I begged her to let me go to 
Elsie’s the first thing to see the new French 
doll her auntie bought her.” 

“Wouldn’t the doll have kept an hour?” 
asked papa. 

“ Well, you see, papa, I wanted to get 
there before her practice-hour.” 

“And how long did you stay, Maggie?” 
asked papa. 

“ She never came home till after eleven,” 
said Charlie. 

“ Is that true, Maggie ?” 


14 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Yes, papa/’ the little girl replied in a 
very low voice, and did not lift her eyes to 
her father’s face. 

“Did you keep Elsie from practicing?” 
asked her father. 

“ Yes, sir — I suppose I did.” 

“ Was that right, Maggie ?” 

“ No, sir.” Her voice was lower this time. 

“ That was one wrong. And then when 
you came home did you sit down and study 
your lesson ?” 

“ No, papa.” 

“Why not?” 

“ Oh, papa, I wish you wouldn’t ask so 
many questions.” 

“ Look up at me, Maggie, and tell me 
why you did not study when you came 
home.” 

“ Mamma wasn’t home,” said Maggie. 

“ Is that a good reason ?” asked papa. 

“ And I was telling Josie about the dolly, 
and I forgot all about it.” 

“And when I put you in mind of it,” 
said Josie, “what did you say?” 

“She said she hated the old Catechism. 
— I told you so, father,” said Charlie. 


THE OPENING SCENE. 


15 


Papa looked at mamma, and repeated his 
old question : “ What shall we do, wife ?” 

Mrs. Arnold did not reply directly, and 
Charlie said, “ Say we needn’t study it any 
more.” 

“ Oh yes, do !” exclamed Maggie. 

“ I will never say that,” said mamma. 

“ Now, mother, tell me true : did you like 
to study it when you were little ?” 

“ No, Charlie. I remember as well as if 
it were yesterday how I cried over one of 
the answers.” 

“ Which one, mother ?” asked Josie. 

“ ‘ What is repentance unto life ?’ ” mother 
answered. 

Mr. Arnold took it up as soberly as if 
Mrs. Arnold was hearing him his lesson, and 
answered, “ 4 Repentance unto life is a sav- 
ing grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true 
sense of his sin, and apprehension of the 
mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief 
and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto 
God, with full purpose of, and endeavor 
after, new obedience.’ ” 

“Why,” said Josie, “I believe I could 
understand it better if father repeated it.” 


16 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ He says it as if he loved to say it,” add- • 
ed Maggie. 

“ I do love it, Maggie,” replied her fa- 
ther. 

“ I suppose you understand it, father,” 
said Josie. 

“ Don’t you, Josie?” asked father. “I 
should not think it would be hard for a 
girl of fifteen.” 

“ It don’t take me long to commit it, fa- 
ther, but I do not really understand it,” said 
Josie. 

“ That is the trouble with them all,” said 
Mrs. Arnold. “ They do not understand it. 

I know that made it hard for me.” 

“ My father always explained it to us,” 
said Mr. Arnold. “We used to recite it to 
him every Sabbath evening.” 

“ You know I had no home,” said Mrs. 
Arnold ; “ all my help came from the Sab- 
bath-school.” 

Mrs. Arnold’s father was a missionary in 
India. You know the missionaries in India 
have to send their little boys and girls home 
to be educated. So she had to bid good-bye 
to her father and mother and cross the great 


THE OPENING SCENE. 


17 


ocean with her little brothers. Kind friends 
took care of her and sent her to Sabbath- 
school, but they never thought of explaining 
the Catechism, or even of inquiring whether 
she had learned it. 

Mr. Arnold told the children that his fa- 
ther, who was a New Englander, used to 
be instructed in the Westminster Catechism 
every Saturday morning; the minister al- 
ways visited the day-school for that purpose. 
Grandpapa Arnold had also to recite it at 
heme on Sabbath afternoons, directly after 
dinner. Family worship followed, and the 
Sabbath ended at sunset, having begun at 
sundown of Saturday. 

Charlie was just going to say he wished 
Sunday ended at sunset, but he checked him- 
self, for he knew his mother would not like 
to hear him say that. 

“ Does not Miss Clarke explain it to you, 
Josie? I supposed each one of you had this 
help from your teachers/’ said Mr. Arnold. 

“ We recite it in the class, father/’ said 
Josie, “ but Miss Clarke never talks to us 
about it.” 

“ Neither does Mr. Phelps,” said Charlie. 

2 


18 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ But lie tells us Bible-stories ; and I’m sure 
I like that a great deal better.” 

“ You have learned the whole Catechism, 
Josie,” remarked Mr. Arnold, “and have 
received a beautiful little Bible from Dr. 
Dubois ?” 

“Yes, father.” 

“ And you do not understand any of 
it?” 

“No, father, not very much of it.” 

“ I must begin, then, to explain it to 
you.” 

“ I wish you would, George,” said Mrs. 
Arnold. 

“I will begin to-morrow evening and 
give little sermons on the Catechism.” 

“ Yes, do, father !” said Josie. 

“ I always like to read my library-books 
at that time,” said Charlie. 

“What do you say, Maggie?” asked her 
father. 

“ Well,” answered Maggie, “ if you’ll 
promise to have ’em very short I’ll try to 
like ’em.” 

“ But you don’t feel very hungry for 
papa’s sermons, I see,” said her father. 


THE OPENING SCENE. 


19 


“ Hungry for sermons! what a funny- 
papa ! Who ever gets hungry for sermons, 
I’d like to know?” exclaimed Maggie. 

“I don’t!” said Charlie in a most decided 
tone. 

“ I’d like some candy,” said Maggie ; 
“ I’m hungry for that, if I ain’t hungry 
for sermons.” 

“ You wouldn’t like to eat candy all the 
while, would you, Maggie?” asked papa. 

“ Yes, indeed I would ; try me.” 

“ No indeed, I will not,” said her father, 
speaking in her tone as nearly as he could. 
“ Mamma and I do not want a sick girl on 
our hands. Isn’t it your bedtime?” 

“ Yes,” answered mamma, “it is time for 
Maggie and Charlie to go to bed.” 

“ Where is Stephen ?” asked papa. 

“In the dining-room, father,” answered 
Josie, “ writing his composition.” 

After Maggie and Charlie went up to bed 
Josephine went into the dining-room to read 
while Stephen was writing. 

When they were alone Mr. and Mrs. 
Arnold talked about the Catechism. Mr. 
Arnold said he would not try sermons unless 


20 , 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


all the children wanted him to preach, and 
Mrs. Arnold said, “ Let us give them the 
Catechism in the form of sugar-plums.” 

“ Maggie will like that,” said Mr. Arnold. 
“ But, wife, I do not know exactly what you 
mean.” 

“I mean to tell them stories that will 
help make it plain; and we will talk about 
the lessons whenever they feel like listening. 
I will keep a Catechism in my sewing-basket, 
so that I may not forget it.” 

“ And I will try to help you, wife.” 

“ Oh, I mean you to do the most of it,” 
said Mrs Arnold, “ and I will help you” 

That night the father and mother prayed 
God to help them in teaching their children, 
and the mother thought of several stories 
before she fell asleep. 


CHAPTER II. 

A CATECHISM-LESSON. 

“ T UCRETIA,” said Mr. Arnold the next 

Id morning, “ what was the question that 
made so much trouble last evening?” 

“ ‘ Who is the Redeemer of God elect V ” 
answered Mrs. Arnold, who had overheard 
the children as they studied it aloud. 

“ Why, that is very easy, I am sure.” 

“ Yes, it is to you, George, because the 
Holy Spirit has made it plain.” 

Several times while dressing Mr. Arnold 
looked into the Bible, as if searching for 
verses, and Mrs. Arnold picked up a little 
story-book, and became so interested in it 
that her husband had to tell her she would 
be late for breakfast if she did not hurry. 

When all were gathered round the break- 

21 


22 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


fast-table, and God’s blessing bad been asked, 
Mrs. Arnold said, “ Why is our Catechism 
like a Crystal Palace?” 

“Is it, papa?” asked matter-of-fact Maggie. 

“ Papa’s giving conundrums on Sunday !” 
exclaimed Charlie. “ I like them better 
than sermons. You won’t preach to us, will 
you, papa?” 

“ No, Charlie. But why is our Catechism 
like a Crystal Palace ?” 

“ It’s like the Catacombs to me,” said 
Stephen, whose composition happened to be 
on this subject. 

“ Why is it, father ?” asked Josie. “ I’m 
sure we can’t guess.” 

“ Because light from above shines in 
through every pane — every page, I mean — 
revealing most beautiful things to me.” 

“ I’d like to see them,” said Maggie. 

“ I’d like to show them to you,” said 
papa. 

“ I’d like to go through the Catacombs,” 
said Stephen. 

“ So would I,” exclaimed Charlie. 

“ What are Catacombs, papa ?” asked Mag- 
gie. 


A CATECHISM-LESSON. 


23 


“ Pshaw, you dummy !” said Charlie ; 
“ don’t you know ?” 

“ You tell her about them, Charlie,” said 
mamma with a smile. 

Charlie was silent. 

“ He don’t know either,” said Maggie. 

“ Yes, I do.” 

“ Well, what are they ?” said Stephen. 

“ Oh, they’re dark something or other ; 
I don’t know — Caves, I guess.” 

“ What are they for?” said Stephen, look- 
ing very wise. 

“ I used to know, but I forget,” said Char- 
lie, very much confused. 

All laughed at Charlie when he made this 
confession, and Mr. Arnold said, “ Stephen 
will tell us all about them when we come 
home from church this afternoon. Now, 
who knows the Catechism lesson for this 
morning ? — I will begin with Stephen.” 

“ I don’t study it any more. Don’t you 
remember Dr. Dubois gave me a Bible last 
year because I had learned the whole Cate- 
chism ?” 

“ Oh yes, I remember it very well. So 
now you know the whole of it? And I 


24 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


happen to know the question for the day ; 
you can give me the answer: ‘Who is the 
Redeemer of God’s elect ?’” 

Stephen hesitated ; his face grew very red. 
Twice he began to answer, but Josie stopped 
him with “ That’s wrong. ” The third time 
he began, “ ‘ The Redeemer of God’s elect is 
— is — Christ the Son of God, who — became 
man by taking — ’ ” 

“ No,” said his mother ; “ you are giving- 
part of the next answer. — You repeat it, 
Josie.” 

Josie recited it without mistake: ‘“The only 
Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, 
became man, and so was, and continueth to 
be, God and man, in two distinct natures 
and one person for ever.’ ” 

“ Now, Josie,” asked her father, “ is there 
anything in that answer you cannot under- 
stand ?” 

“ No, father. I have been thinking it over 
word by word since last night, and I believe 
I understand it all except — well, except the 
‘ two distinct natures.’ What does that 
mean ?” 


A CATECHISM-LESSON. 


25 


“ Why, daughter, it means that Christ is 
now both God and man, as he was when on 
earth,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“Is Jesus a man in heaven, papa?” asked 
Maggie. 

“ Certainly.” 

“ Was he a man in heaven, papa, before 
he came down here to die for us?” inquired 
Charlie. “ I thought he began here a little 
baby.” 

“ So he did, Charlie,” answered papa. 
“ First he was God ; then he came to earth 
and took upon him a human nature and was 
a little baby.” 

“ In a manger,” said Maggie. 

“ Yes,” replied papa. “ And then he 
grew up to be a man. But all the while 
that he was a man be was also God.” 

“ God when he was a baby, papa ?” asked 
Maggie in surprise. 

“ Why, yes, Maggie ; did not you know 
that?” 

“No, papa; I always thought he left his 
God part up in heaven till he began to make 
sick people well, and all that.” 

“ Maggie knew he could not make the sick 


26 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


well and raise the dead unless he was God,” 
remarked her mamma. 

“ Yes, mamma ; you’ve often told me 
that.” 

“ I should think God wouldn’t want to be 
a little baby,” remarked Charlie. 

“ That was part of his humiliation, Char- 
lie.” 

“ What’s ‘humiliation,’ papa?” inquired 
Maggie. 

“You don’t know much, that’s certain,” 
said Charlie with an air of superior wisdom. 

“How about the Catacombs, Charlie?” 
asked Stephen. 

“Maggie will learn fast,” said her father, 
“ if she tries to find out the meaning of every 
word she meets. And if any of you are 
wise enough to answer her questions, it will 
be better for you to do it than to make fun 
of her.” 

“ There’s lots of hard words in the Cate- 
chism,” remarked Maggie ; “ I don’t know 
what they mean.” 

“You must study Latin,” said Stephen, 
“and then you’ll find out.” 

“ Meanwhile, her big brother will kindly 


A CATECHISM-LESSON. 27 

give her the meaning of all the strange 
words in the Catechism/’ said her papa. 

“ But, papa, you didn’t tell what ‘ humil- 
iation ’ meant,” said Maggie. 

“ Humilitas ,” said Stephen. 

“ That ain’t the way to call it, is it, papa ?” 
said Maggie, appealing to her father. 

“That’s the Latin of it,” said Stephen. 

“ And what is the English of it, Stephen ?” 
asked his father. 

“ 4 The state of being humbled,’ ” answered 
Stephen. 

“ I don’t know to-day’s answer yet, and 
it’s most time to go,” said Charlie. 

“Yes,” said their mother, “let us keep at 
that one answer until you all understand 
it.” 

“ I understand now about the 4 two dis- 
tinct natures,’” said Charlie, “but I don’t 
know what ‘ God’s elect ’ means.” 

“ Do you know what ‘ Redeemer ’ means ?” 
asked his mother. 

“ No, ma’am.” 

“ Or what ‘ ransom ’ means ?” 

“ No, ma’am — not exactly.” 

“'Ransom-Redeemer’ — that is what Mr. 


28 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Griffin always says in his prayers/’ said 
Josie. 

“ It is a beautiful name for our Saviour,” 
remarked Mr. Arnold. 

Maggie wondered what it meant, but she 
did not say anything, because after she had 
asked what “ humiliation ” meant she did not 
feel any wiser than before. 

“Now,” said Mr. Arnold, “if you and 
Maggie will listen for five minutes I think 
I can make the answer to-day plain to you. 
Will you try ?” 

Both promised, and their father said: 
“‘God’s elect’ means — ” He looked at 
Stephen, who answered “ chosen .” “ Yes, 

God has chosen some to be saved. They 
cannot save themselves. They are by na- 
ture in slavery to sin, and somebody must 
redeem them. — What does the work redeem 
mean, Stephen ?” 

“ To buy back, father.” 

“ Yes, or to rescue from bondage,” added 
his father. “This Jesus does. He gives us 
our liberty by paying a great price. — What 
was the price, Josie.” 

“ Himself, father ?” 


A CATECHISM-LESSON. 


29 


“ Yes, he gave himself for us. So he is 
our Ransom.' ” 

“ Look in the dictionary, Josie,” said her 
mother, “ and see what ransom means.” 

Josie soon found it, and read, “ 6 Money 
or price paid for the redemption of a prison- 
er or slave.’ ” 

“ One Sabbath, years ago,” said Mr. Ar- 
nold, “ a minister brought into his church a 
young woman who was a slave. He placed 
her before the pulpit, where every one could 
see her, and asked his people to buy her 
freedom. A large sum of money was soon 
raised, and the slave became a free woman.” 

“What did they want the money for?” 
inquired Maggie. 

“ To pay her owner for her.” 

“ I wouldn’t have paid him a cent !” said 
Charlie excitedly ; “ I’d just run away with 
her.” 

“ Wouldn’t that have been stealing ?” 
asked Stephen. 

“ I don’t care,” replied Charlie ; “ I’d have 
done it, any way.” 

“ How much did she cost, papa ? — a hun- 
dred dollars ?” asked Maggie. 


30 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ More likely five hundred,” said Stephen. 

“ I do not remember how much it was,” 
said Mr. Arnold, “ but the price set upon 
her by her owner was paid by the congre- 
gation. Her owner had bought her, and 
now she was bought by those who wished to 
set her free from bondage ; she was redeemed . 
The price, or ransom , was paid, and she was 
for ever free.” 

“ That must have been before the war ; 
there is no more slavery in the United States 
now.” 

“ But there’s the bell !” cried Charlie. 

“ And I had a story to tell,” said mother. 

“ We’ll have that when we come home,” 
said father. 

“ And the Catacombs,” added mother. 

“ Josie will have to hear you say your 
Catechism by the way till you know every 
word,” said father to Maggie. 

It was hard for Maggie to learn her lesson 
on the way to school, for Elsie joined them, 
and they were soon talking about the new 
dolly, whose eyes were such a beautiful blue 
and whose name was Eloise. 

“ Paugli ! what a name !” grunted Charlie. 


A CA TECH ISM- LESSON. 


31 


Both the little girls thought it was a beau- 
tiful name. They wondered what Charlie 
would have called her. Elsie whispered 
that mamma said she might invite Maggie 
to spend Monday afternoon and stay to tea. 
Maggie could not think of her lessons after 
that. They whispered so much in the class 
that Miss Bronk, after trying several times 
to quiet them, said to the rest of her class, 
“ Now, girls, shut your Bibles and be very 
quiet, and Elsie and Maggie will tell you 
all about the new French doll.” 

This made Elsie and Maggie feel very 
much ashamed, for they well knew that it 
was not right to talk about dolls while their 
teacher was trying to explain the lesson. 

And the worst of it was that all the other 
girls laughed to see how ashamed they look- 
ed. Even Miss Bronk could not keep back 
a little smile. She had no more trouble in 
her class that day. 

At dinner-time grandmother took her 
seat at the table. She had been sick up 
stairs for two or three days. The children 
were glad to have her back again, for she 
was never cross to them, and Maggie lost no 


32 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


time in telling her what great fun was in 
store for Monday afternoon. The rest of the 
family had heard it before they were out of 
church. 

Grandmother Morris listened with as much 
interest as if she expected to play with Dol- 
ly herself, and when Maggie stopped to take 
breath she said, “ You should have seen the 
box of dolls your mother once begged to 
send to India. How the little girls in our 
school jumped and danced when the box 
was opened !” 

Maggie had often heard the story, but 
she did not say so, because her mother had 
told her that would not be polite to grand- 
mother. Grandmother Morris was growing 
very forgetful, and said the same things over 
and over again, and told the same stories 
until they all knew them by heart. But 
the children were taught never to make 
fun of her. 

All Maggie did this time was to turn 
lound to Stephen, who sat next to her, and 
in what was meant to be a whisper say, “ Some 
day I’ll be doing it too.” 

“ Doing what ?” asked Stephen. 


A CATECHISM-LESSON. 


33 


* u Telling it over and over again,” said 
Maggie soberly. 

Grandmother caught part of the loud 
whisper, and said, “ Did I tell you before, 
child ?” 

“ Yes, grandma, but no matter ; I like 
your stories.” 

And really Grandmother Morris’s stories 
were interesting, for she had been a mission- 
ary in India nearly all her life, and had 
seen many curious things. 

“ Where is that story, mother, you were 
going to tell us ?” inquired Mr. Arnold of 
his wife. “ I thought you would be late for 
breakfast, you ^seemed so absorbed in the 
little book.” 

Mother smiled and said, “ It was Maggie’s 
or Charlie’s Sunday-school book.” 

“ Mine , mother,” interrupted Maggie. 
“ Wasn’t it splendid?” 

“ What was it about, Maggie ?” asked her 
father. 

“ Oh, papa, it told about a king who was 
going to put one of his servants to death 
’cause he’d been doing something naughty. 
And the king’s son went into prison and 


34 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


changed clothes with the poor man, and 
was just walking out to be killed when 
the king saw it was his own son — and he 
didn’t — ” 

“ That’s like our Redeemer, isn’t it, fa- 
ther?” exclaimed Charlie. “ He was punish- 
ed for us. Mr. Knox talked about that in 
the class to-day.” 

“ Yes, Charlie, he bore the punishment 
we deserved.” 

“And he didn’t die,” said Maggie, eager 
to finish her story. 

“ Yes, he did too,” said Charlie. 

“ No, Charles, for I read it,” said Maggie, 
who felt sure of what she said. “ The king 
forgave his son, and the other man had run 
away somewhere.” 

“I meant,” said Charlie, “Jesus did die. 
So the son in the story wasn’t exactly like 
Jesus, after all.” 

“ Why didn’t you say so, then ?” said 
Maggie, who had a way of putting on dig- 
nity that made everybody laugh. “You 
must be more ’splicit.” 

“ Hi ! hi !” said Stephen ; “ that’s a big 
one ! Puss slept with her head on the die- 


A CATECHISM-LESSON. 


35 


tionary last night, I guess. Ex-plic-i-tus , 
ex-pli-co /” 

Mr. Arnold did not stop the merry laugh 
that went around the table, and little Maggie 
hardly knew whether to be proud or ashamed 
of her little speech. 

When they were all quiet Mr. Arnold said, 
“ So that was mother’s story, told by Mag- 
gie?” 

“ Yes,” said Mrs. Arnold ; “ I thought 
it would help make the Catechism-lesson 
plain.” 

“ So it does, mamma,” said Charlie. “I 
understand it now — don’t you, Mag?” 

“ Yes, perfectly,” replied the little maiden. 

And then they all began to laugh again. 
This time their father stopped them, and in 
a gentle tone said to her, “ Daughter, do 
you understand how Jesus is our Re- 
deemer ?” 

“ Yes, papa. You said we were slaves of 
sin, and Jesus buys us with himself. And we 
can’t be Satan’s any more, can we ?” 

“No, Maggie; w T e belong to Jesus. He 
bought us with his own blood. Don’t for- 
get that.” 


36 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ No, papa.” 

“ He redeems us,” said mamma with tears 
in her eyes ; “ so he is our Redeemer. His 
life is the price; so he is our Ransom.” 

“I should think you wouldn’t feel like 
crying about that,” said Charlie ; “ it’s 
enough to make anybody glad.” 

“ So it is, Charlie. And remember, Jesus 
is called the only Redeemer of God’s elect. 
No one else could save us.” 

As they left the table Mr. Arnold said, 
“ Don’t forget that you are to give us the 
Catacombs this evening, Stephen.” 

“ To read my composition, do you mean, 
sir?” 

“ Well, I did not mean that, but you may 
do it if you will, and we shall all be glad to 
hear it.” 


CHAPTER III. 


THE CATACOMBS. 

“ * rpHE Catacombs of Home/ ” said Ste- 
J- phen, unfolding his composition. 

“ Stand up and read it, Steve,” said Char- 
lie. 

“ No necessity for that,” said Mr. Arnold ; 
“ and you need not give it to us in so loud a 
tone.” 

Stephen commenced his subject in a lower 
tone, and read as follows : 

“THE CATACOMBS OF HOME. 

“ The Catacombs were once stone-quarries, 
which were worked in order to supply the 
city of Home with building-material. 

“ After the stone was removed the Catacombs 
stood vacant, and when the persecution of 
Christians began they afforded good places 
in which to hide. For three hundred years 

37 


38 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


or more all the Christians who died in Rome 
were buried there. The stone is soft, and it 
is easy to cut burial-places, like shelves, in 
the sides of the vaults. The openings of 
these burial-places were each closed with a 
thin slab of marble, and on these slabs we 
see some queer things. The letters are irreg- 
ular, and often the spelling is bad. Some- 
times you see a picture of a shepherd carry- 
ing a lamb ; sometimes, a dove with an olive- 
branch in her mouth ; many times we see the 
cross, and palms, crowns, flowers, fruits and 
instruments of torture.” 

“ Instruments of torture !” exclaimed Mag- 
gie. “ Why, I don’t think they would look 
very well on tombstones beside flowers and 
fruits and lambs.” 

“ They marked the martyrs’ graves,” her 
father explained. — 44 Go on, Stephen.” 

“ The inscriptions are very quaint. Here 
are some : 4 Florentius, in peace.’ 4 Vitalis, 
buried on Saturday, Kalends of August. 
She lived with her husband ten years and 
thirty days. In Christ, the First and the 
Last.’ 4 Primitim, in peace : a most valiant 
martyr, after many torments. Aged 38. 



Page 38. 


The Catacombs of Rome. 










































THE CATACOMBS. 


39 


His wife raised this to her dearest, well- 
deserving husband.’ 4 Victorina, in peace 
and in Christ.’ 

“On some slabs we read, ‘An eternal 
home.’ Many slabs have ships cut on 
them, and one has this inscription : 

‘Navira, in peace, a sweet soul, 

Who lived sixteen years and five months — 

A soul as sweet as honey. 

This epitaph was made 

By her parents — the sign, a shi p.’ 

“Some have pictures of anchors, and a 
great many have fishes. Many have scenes 
from the life of Christ. In one place we see 
him in the manger, with oxen standing look- 
ing at him, while the Wise Men are coming 
toward him with their gifts and the Star of 
Bethlehem is shining over their heads. On 
another slab we see him sitting on his moth- 
er’s lap, and the three Wise Men are coming 
to him, each with a crown in his hand. 
Sometimes he is represented as a lamb, with 
a cross on his head. 

“ One quite large painting in the Cata- 
combs is the baptism of Jesus. Another is 
Jesus with his hand on the head of a little 


40 


THE ARE OLD FAMILY. 


child. In another place there is a picture of 
Jesus riding into Jerusalem. And the queer- 
est one of all is Christ calling Lazarus forth 
from his tomb. 

“Then there are a great many pictures 
of Old-Testament scenes — Noah in the ark; 
Adam and Eve ; Abraham offering Isaac ; 
Moses smiting the rock; Job sitting sor- 
rowful ; the Three Children in the fiery 
furnace ; Elijah in the chariot of fire ; 
Daniel in the lions’ den ; and the whale 
swallowing Jonah. 

“ Pagans as well as Christians were buried 
in the Catacombs. On the pagan side the 
inscriptions are more correctly spelled, and 
carved better, but they say nothing of hope 
in Christ ; they did not ‘ sleep in the peace 
of the Lord.’ ” 

“ One of the entrances into the Catacombs 
is through the church of St. Sebastian, which 
stands on the Appian Way, about two miles 
from Home. There is another entrance at 
the church of St. Agnes, but they will not 
allow strangers to enter there. There are 
many openings in the ground, caused, it is 
supposed, by the falling in of the earth when 


THE CATACOMBS. 


41 


digging had made the roof too thin. Some- 
times in riding carelessly over these places 
persons have fallen in, for loose vines grow- 
ing over them almost hide these openings. 
Some people think they were made by the 
Christians for breathing-holes. 

“ The monks guide people through the 
gloomy vaults. The guide and each per- 
son carries a lamp, and the rocks are mark- 
ed in many places with white paint to show 
the way. Sometimes lives are lost by the 
rocks caving in. Once a whole school of 
nearly thirty scholars, with their teacher, 
went down into the Catacombs, and never 
came out. All search was vain. The rocks 
must have caved in and buried them. 

“ I have not time to tell about the martyrs. 
No doubt there were a good many buried in 
these Catacombs.” 

“ Is that all ?” asked Mrs. Arnold as Ste* 
phen folded up his paper. 

“ Yes, mother. I didn’t know exactly how 
to end it.” 

“ You studied it out of Bishop Kep’s book,” 
said Josie. 


42 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“Did he?” exclaimed Maggie. “ Well, I 
like it, any way.” 

“ Yes,” said Mr. Arnold, “ it is very in- 
teresting. I think it might have been better 
arranged if you had taken more pains. But 
it is very good.” 

“ I had to copy a little,” said Stephen, 
“ for I wouldn’t have known much about 
them if I hadn’t looked in some book. 
I’ve never been there, you know.” 

“I’d like to know about the martyrs,” 
said Maggie. “ Papa, you know everything ; 
can’t you tell us some stories about them?” 

“ I cannot think of any now,” said her 
father, smiling at the idea of knowing every- 
thing . “But I can tell you of one thing 
which Stephen did not mention.” 

“What is that, sir?” inquired Stephen. 

“Catechism-chairs in the Catacombs of 
St. Agnes,” replied Mr. Arnold. 

“ Catechism-chairs, father !” exclaimed 
Charlie. 

“Yes, Charlie.” 

“ Put a fellow on, and he conies out all 
catechismed ?” 

“ Not exactly In a vaulted room is found 


THE CATACOMBS. 


43 


a large stone chair, where, it is said, the pas- 
tor used to sit while teaching the Catechism.” 

“ Our Catechism ?” asked Josie. 

“ Oh no. In another vault we find two 
stone chairs, one on each side of a doorway 
— one for boys and the other for girls.” 

“ To sit in and learn their lessons ?” asked 
Maggie. “ I’d like a softer one.” 

“ No, Maggie : to recite their lessons.” 

“ I wonder whether they threw their shoes 
against the door ?” said Mrs. Arnold, looking 
slyly at Charlie, but Charlie gazed intently 
out of the window. He did not seem to hear 
his mother. 

“ What is the question for next Sabbath ?” 
asked Mr. Arnold. 

Josie gave both question and answer : 
“ ‘ How did Christ, being the Son of God, 
become man V — ‘ Christ, the Son of God, be- 
came man, by taking to himself a true body 
and a reasonable soul ; being conceived by 
the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb 
of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet 
without sin/ ” 

“ I will preach a little sermon on that,” 
said Mr. Arnold. 


44 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“And then Maggie and Charlie must go 
to bed,” said Mrs. Arnold. 

“ Mag will go to sleep before father gets 
through,” said Stephen. 

“ No, I won’t,” said Maggie, trying to 
look very bright. 

“ I’ll watch her,” said Charlie. 

“ And listen too,” said his mother. 

“ Christ, who was the eternal Son of God,” 
said Mr. Arnold, “ took a body like ours, and 
a soul like ours, because none but man.could 
suffer for man’s sin, and none but God could 
save. He was sinless. Mary was his mother.” 

“Was she sinless, papa?” asked Maggie. 

“ No, Maggie.” 

“ The Romanists say so,” said Josie. . 

“The Bible does not say so, Josie,” re- 
plied her father. 

“ Don’t preach any more, father,” said 
Charlie ; “ Maggie’s sleepy.” 

“ You look more sleepy yourself,” said 
his mother, laughing. 

True enough, Charlie was sleepy; and 
Mrs. Arnold sent them both to bed. 

Josie said her father’s little talks about 
the Catechism were like the little breathing- 


THE CATACOMBS. 


45 


holes for the Christians in the Catacombs. 
Her father said he was surprised she had 
not understood it better before. And this 
led Josie to make the candid confession that 
she had not really tried to understand her 
Catechism. But now she thought more 
about it, and it was growing plainer. 

Josie told her father a little secret. “ Fa- 
ther,” she said, “ I pray over my lesson now; 
I ask God to make it plain.” 

And her father reverently said, “ I thank 
God for that, my child.” 


CHAPTER IV. 

SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 

O N Monday afternoon Maggie took her 
dear Angelica and went to visit Elsie 
and her Eloise. There was no shutting her 
eyes to the fact that Angelica, dear though 
she was, looked a little the worse for wear 
beside the fresh Eloise and her new French 
dresses. 

Mrs. Arnold had thought of this, and 
while Maggie was in school she had made 
a little lace over-dress for Angelica, and put 
a fresh bow or two on the placid young lady. 
Though Angelica received it all with compo- 
sure, Maggie expressed surprise and pleasure 
in a way that repaid her mother for all her 
trouble. As she bade good-bye to Maggie, 
Mrs. Arnold gently warned her not to covet 
Eloise. 

“Til try not to, mamma, if you say it’s 

46 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 47 

wrong ; but I suppose she is prettier than 
Angie.” 

Away tripped the little mamma, clasping 
Angie ; and soon the two girls were deep in 
the mysteries of housekeeping, weddings and 
parties. 

At seven o’clock Mrs. Arnold sent Bridget 
to bring Maggie home, but she returned 
without her, saying, “ Judge Green bid me 
say, ma’am, that if you would excuse his 
keeping Maggie an hour longer he would 
bring her home himself.” 

Soon after eight the door-bell rang, and 
Maggie’s merry laugh was heard in the hall. 
A gentleman’s voice and laugh were heard 
too, and after some stamping and brushing 
Judge Green and Maggie walked into the 
parlor. Snowflakes lay on their hair and 
eyebrows, and Maggie’s cheeks were rosy as 
apples. 

“ Oh, mother ! father ! we’ve had such 
an elegant time !” exclaimed Maggie as she 
rushed toward them. 

“So we have,” said Judge Green, laugh- 
ing. “ And then w-e wouldn’t have been 
willing to stop yet for another hour if it 


48 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


had not begun to snow so fast — would we, 
Maggie ?” 

“ No, sir.” 

“ What have you been doing ?” asked 
Maggie’s father. 

“ Don’t tell, Maggie; we’ll make him 
guess,” said the judge. 

Maggie danced up and down, and looked 
as if she had enjoyed something very much. 

Her father tried to guess : “ Playing with 
the new dolly?” 

“ Yes,” said Maggie, “ but that was not 
the best. Think very hard.” 

Mr. Arnold made believe to think very 
hard, and at last said, “ I can’t think of any- 
thing better than playing with a new French 
dolly.” 

“ Oh, papa ! what did you used to do when 
you were a little boy ? You’ll have to guess 
again.” 

“ Ride down hill,” said papa ; and Maggie 
clapped her hands and said, “ That’s just 
what we’ve been doing — Uncle Charles and 
Elsie and me.” 

Maggie always called Judge Green “ Un- 
cle Charles,” though he was no relation, 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 49 

because he and Maggie’s father had been 
intimate friends ever since they were 
school-boys. Mr. Arnold always called 
him Charles, and he called Mr. Arnold, 
George. 

How Maggie’s father and mother laughed 
when they found out that Judge Green had 
been riding down hill ! And the judge acted 
so funnily that he kept Maggie lnughing all 
the time. 

“ Riding down hill in a snowstorm ?” said 
Mrs. Arnold. — “Aren’t you afraid of taking 
cold, Judge Green ?” 

“Why, my dear woman, it’s only just 
begun to snow. Have you not looked out 
since dark ? The moon has shone since 
six o’clock till about half an hour ago.” 

“ Has it ?” said Mrs. Arnold. 

“ Of course it has. How can you and 
your old man here expect to know anything 
or enjoy anything while you stay in the par- 
lor with your curtains drawn ?” 

“ We can’t,” said Mr. Arnold with a tone 
of sorrowful regret. 

“ Well, man, come out, then, and enjoy 
yourself as we do.” 

5 


50 THE ARNOLD FAMILY . 

“ We are too old/’ said Mrs. Arnold ; and 
Maggie’s father hummed, 

“ Oh would I were a boy again !” 

“ Glad I’m one,” said the judge with a 
cheery tone. 

“ Hadn’t you forgotten how to steer ?” in- 
quired Mr. Arnold. 

“Oh my! no,” exclaimed the judge. 

“But we ran into a tree twice,” said 
Maggie. 

“Hush!” said Judge Green; “you 
mustn’t tell tales out of school.” 

“ I warrant you he fell off,” said Mr. 
Arnold aside in a loud whisper to his 
wife. 

Maggie laughed heartily at this, and clap- 
ped her hands over her mouth, while “Un- 
cle Charles ” looked threateningly at her and 
shook his head. 

They kept up the fun for some time. 
Maggie had never seen her father and 
mother and the judge “carry on so” be- 
fore, and it amused her very much. When 
her mother told her it was long after bedtime 
and she must hurry to bed, she asked them 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 51 

not to tell Charlie what she had been doing, 
for she wanted to tell him herself the first 
thing in the morning. 

“ Where are Charlie and Josie and Ste- 
phen ?” inquired Judge Green, looking 
around the room as he spoke, as if he had 
just missed them. 

“ They have gone to the concert,” replied 
Mr. Arnold ; “ but I’ve no doubt Charlie 
would have enjoyed it more with you and 
Maggie.” 

“Of course he would,” said the judge. 
“ Nothing will compare with coasting, 
especially if you have two nice little girls 
to put their arms around your neck. — 
Come, kiss me good-night, Maggie.” 

If Maggie had come back in five minutes 
she would have seen papa and mamma and 
Judge Green talking as soberly as if they 
had never joked in all their lives. And so 
they talked for an hour or more, and then 
the judge said he must go home, or else 
Mrs. Green would think he was buried 
under the snow, with little Maggie in his 
arms. 

When he opened the front door to go out 


52 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


the flakes were falling thick and fast and the 
snow lay quite deep upon the ground. Soon 
after Josie and her two brothers came home 
— Josie with Stephen’s handkerchief over 
her best bonnet, and the boys with hair 
and shoulders white with snow. They 
asked if Maggie got home before it snowed, 
but Mr. and Mrs. Arnold did not tell Mag- 
gie’s secret. 

As Stephen passed Maggie’s room-door 
the next morning on his way to breakfast, 
he called out, “ Hurry and get up, Maggie ; 
I want to give you a sleigh-ride.” 

Out hopped Maggie, and told him what 
fun she had had the night before. 

“ I was going to take you in my cutter,” 
said Stephen as they sat down to breakfast, 
“ but I suppose after coasting with the great 
Judge Green you will not condescend to ride 
with me?” 

“ Coasting is more exciting,” said Maggie 
very soberly, “but I’ll ride in the cutter 
with you, if you want me to.” 

The tone in which Maggie uttered this 
made them laugh heartily ; and Mr. Arnold 
said, “Evidently, it is a coming down, Ste- 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 53 

phen, on Maggie’s part, to ride with you in 
the new cutter.” 

They laughed and talked a good deal 
about the coasting, and Mrs. Arnold asked 
Maggie if Mrs. Green was out with them. 

“ No, mamma. And she didn’t want 
Uncle Charles to go a bit,” said Maggie. 

“ What did she say to him, Maggie ?” ask- 
ed Charlie, who did not like Mrs. Green. 

“ Why, first when he said he’d go she 
said he’d lame his back and take cold.” 

“ Did you and Elsie coax him to go ?” 
inquired Josie. 

“ No ; Elsie only asked him a little bit.” 

“ And you asked him a big bit, I warrant,” 
said Stephen. 

“ No, Steve ; I tried to look another way, 
so he wouldn’t see how much I wanted him 
to go.” 

Telltale eyes hath my little Maggie,’ ” 
sang papa. 

“ Well, papa, I did try not to let him see 
I wanted him to go.” 

“ What else did Mother Green say ?” ask- 
ed Charlie. 

“ She said, 4 Charles, I thought you were 


54 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

anxious to get at your book ? It seemed as 
if you couldn’t wait till tea was over.’ She 
said it real snappy, and what do you think 
Uncle Charles said ?” Maggie paused a sec- 
ond, and then whispered, “ He said, ‘ Don’t 
you remember, Jane? — “For even Christ 
pleased not himself.” ’ ” 

“ That was an odd thing to say when you 
were going to ride down hill,” remarked 
Charlie. 

“ Aunt Jane never forgets to please her- 
self,” remarked Josie. 

“ Paugh ! I wouldn’t call her 4 Aunt 
Jane,’ ” exclaimed Charlie. 

“ Why, you must,” said Maggie. “Uncles’ 
wives are always aunts; mamma said so.” 

“ Uncle Charles is only an uncle by adop- 
tion,” replied Charlie, “and I ain’t agoing 
to adopt Mrs. Judge ; and that’s all there is 
about it.” 

“ Mustn’t he, papa ?” asked Maggie. 

But papa only laughed. He thought Mrs. 
Green a very selfish woman, but he did not 
like to say anything against her. 

“What did you play, Maggie?” asked 
Charlie. 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 55 

“ Oh, we played house, and took the dolls 
to church, and Elsie preached the sermon, 
just like Mr. Shannon — ” 

“Just like Mr. Shannon!” laughed Ste- 
phen ; “ I should think so !” 

“ It was , Stephen. And you must not 
interrupt me ; it isn’t very purlite.” 

“ Go on, ma’am,” said Stephen, “ and give 
us the points of similarity.” 

“ What are they f” asked Maggie. 

“ Tell us how Elsie preached like Mr. 
Shannon,” said Josie. 

“ Oh, she preached over his sermon. 
That was his text, you know, what Uncle 
Charles said ; and Elsie said it was a real 
nice sermon. She could understand every 
bit of it.” 

“ Tell us something about it, Maggie,” 
said her mother. 

“ Well, mamma, he said big people must- 
n’t mind coming down to please us little peo- 
ple, because Jesus didn’t always do just what 
he wanted to. I mean, he said he didn’t 
think about pleasing himself. I wish 
Charlie didn’t.” 

“ I wish Maggie didn’t,” said Josie. 


56 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ What did lie say about little people, 
Maggie ?” inquired her father. 

Maggie hesitated a little, and then she 
said, “ He said children mustn’t always 
want to have their own way ; it wasn’t 
nice, and Jesus don’t like it.” 

“ It is nice, though,” said Charlie. 
“Everybody thinks it’s nice to have his 
own way.” 

“So we do, Charlie, all of us; but we 
must try to be like Jesus and to please 
him.” It was mother who answered this 
time. No one else spoke for a moment or 
two. 

Then father said, “ That was a great com- 
ing down for Judge Green, to ride down hill 
with two little girls.” 

“ I think so too, papa,” said Maggie. 

“ Is that what you’d call ‘ humiliation ’ ?” 
asked Charlie. 

“ ‘ Humiliation — the state of being hum- 
ble,’ ” remarked Josie. 

“ Mamma, would you be too proud to ride 
down hill with us ?” asked Maggie. 

“ Not too proud,” said Mrs. Arnold, “ but 
too something else.” 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 


57 


“ Too old ?” asked Maggie. 

“ Yes, I think that must be the matter. 
And I don’t believe I could keep on, all the 
way down that hill of Judge Green’s,” said 
Mrs. Arnold. 

“ Where did you go, Maggie ?” asked 
Charlie. 

“ Back of the carriage-house, down to the 
ravine,” answered Maggie. — “ Oh, mamma, 
it’s lovely !” 

“ I like it best there in summer, Maggie,” 
said mamma. 

“ Oh, I mean it’s lovely to ride down hill,” 
said Maggie. 

“ Maggie,” said her father, “ I am think- 
ing about the Catechism.” 

“ You always think about the Catechism, 
papa.” 

“ It was something of a coming down for 
a great and learned man like Judge Green 
to play with you, but that is nothing to what 
Jesus did.” 

Maggie and Charlie both looked at their 
father with surprise, but said nothing, and 
he, turning to Josie, asked, “ 4 Wherein did 
Christ’s humiliation consist?’” 


58 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

Josie answered promptly : “ ‘ Christ’s hu- 
miliation consisted in his being born, and 
that in a low condition, made under the 
law, undergoing the miseries of this life, 
the wrath of God, and the cursed death of 
the cross; in being buried, and continuing 
under the power of death for a time.’ ” 

“ It would be humbling for a man to give 
up his manhood and become a little baby 
again,” said Mr. Arnold ; “ how much more 
for one who was God ! And that was but 
the beginning of his humiliation. Repeat 
it again slowly, Josie ; and do you, Charlie, 
count on your fingers everything the an- 
swer gives.” 

Josie repeated it very slowly and carefully. 
Charlie counted on his fingers as she did so. 
And as Charlie counted Stephen laid aside 
one after another the little crackers mother 
had just placed beside Maggie’s bread-and- 
milk. 

“ Eight,” said Charlie. 

And Stephen counted the little pile of 
crackers, and Maggie said, “ Eight.” 

“ What is the first, Josie?” asked father. 

“ His being born,” said Josie. 


SLEDDING WI*tH JUDGE GREEN. 59 

“ Yes, we spoke of that.” Here Stephen 
pushed one of the crackers toward Maggie, 
and she broke it in her milk. “ And while * 
it would have been great condescension for 
him to be a baby in the midst of wealth and 
luxury, he did more than this : he was born 
in a stable and laid in a manger. His pa- ^ 
rents were poor. And when he grew up he 
worked in the carpenter-shop with Joseph. 

It was a lowly condition.” 

Stephen pushed another cracker toward 
Maggie, and she said, “ Charlie had to let 
go his fingers.” 

“ I want to eat,” said Charlie. 

“ What comes next ?” asked father. 

“ ‘ Made under the law/ ” replied Ste- 
phen. 

“ What does that mean, father ?” asked 
Josie. 

“ It means that he kept all the law ; he 
did all the old Jewish law bade a man 
do.” 

Stephen pushed the third cracker nearer 
Maggie's bowl of milk. 

“ What comes next ?” 

“ ‘ Undergoing the miseries of this life,' ” 


60 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Josie replied. And Stephen pushed aside 
another cracker. 

“ Yes, the life of Jesus on the earth was 
not what most men would call a happy life. 
He often suffered from hunger and weariness, 
and the scoffings of wicked men must have 
been hard to bear. He spent all his time 
ministering to others, and never thought 
of doing anything to please himself.” 

When Mr. Arnold stopped speaking 
Charlie said, “ It’s mighty hard.” 

“ What ?” asked Maggie. 

“ Not to please yourself,” he answered. 

“ I’m going to try,” said Maggie resolutely. 

“ What next, Josie ?” 

“ ‘ The wrath of God/ ” she answered. 

“ This was hard to bear.” 

“ Why, father, was God angry with Je- 
sus?” asked Charlie. 

“ Not as we get angry, Charlie. But you 
must remember that God hates sin, though 
he loves the sinner. And Christ was stand- 
ing in the place of sinners, bearing the sins 
of the whole world ; consequently, he felt 
the effects of God’s hatred of sin, tl lough the 
Father’s love for his Son was eternal. ‘ As 


SLEDDING WITH JUDGE GREEN. 61 

the Father hath loved me, so have I loved 
you/ Jesus says.” 

“ When he was on the cross what did he 
say, Charlie ?” asked his mother. 

“ ‘ My God, why hast thou forsaken me ?’ ” 
answered Charlie. 

“ Papa,” said Maggie, “ God the Father 
loves us just as much as Jesus does, doesn’t 
he ?” 

“ Yes, daughter.” 

“ Jeannie Clare says he doesn’t. She says 
God was angry with us, and Jesus made it 
up with him by dying for us.” 

“ God the Father out of love gave Jesus 
to die for us. The Bible says, ‘ Herein is 
love, not that we loved God, but that he 
loved us, and sent his Son to be the pro- 
pitiation for our sins.’ ‘ In this was mani- 
fested [made known] the love of God toward 
us, because that God sent his only-begotten 
Son into the world, that we might live 
through him.’” 

“ Three crackers left !” said Maggie, who 
was getting a little tired of the lesson and 
wanted to finish her crackers. 

Her father understood her, and hastened 


62 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


to finish his Catechism - teaching : “ Next, 
Josie ?” 

“ ‘ The cursed death of the cross/ ” she 
replied. 

“ That was a great part of Christ’s humil- 
iation, to die the death appointed for crimi- 
nals, with a man of evil life hanging on each 
side of him. And then he, the Lord of life, 
was buried, and lay under the power of death 
for part of three days. — We will not talk 
about it any more now,” said Mr. Arnold, 
rising from the table as he spoke. “ Only 
remember, that Christ stooped so low to raise 
us to his throne.” 

There were tears in Josie’s eyes. Her 
father saw them, and as he walked away he 
silently prayed God to fill the heart of each 
child with love to Jesus. 


CHAPTER V. 

PROPHET , i PRIEST AND KING. 

N OTHING more was said about the Cate- 
chism until the Sabbath came. After 
tea, when the lamp was lighted in the par- 
lor, the children gathered around their pa- 
rents and the Catechism-lesson began by 
Mr. Arnold’s asking Josie, “‘What offices 
doth Christ execute as our Redeemer ?’” 

Josie answered, “ ‘ Christ as our Redeemer 
execute th the offices of a prophet, of a priest, 
and of a king, both in his estate of humil- 
iation and exaltation.’ ” 

“ Easy to divide that answer,” remarked 
Stephen. 

“ How, Stephen ?” asked his father. 

“ Why, Christ our Prophet, first ; Christ 
our Priest, second ; and Christ our King, 
third,” he answered. 


63 


64 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Tell us three stories on that, father,” 
said Maggie. 

“ Prophet, Priest, King — a story about each, 
do you mean ?” 

“ Yes, father.” 

“ First, I must ask Josie another ques- 
tion.” 

“ It’s Stephen’s turn, father,” said Maggie. 

“ I did not know that we went by turns, 
Maggie ; but I will ask Stephen this time : 

‘ How doth Christ execute the office of a 
prophet ?’ ” 

And Stephen — would you believe it? — 
could not give the answer correctly, so 
that it had to be passed over to Josie, who 
answered, “ 4 Christ executeth the office of a 
prophet, in revealing to us, by his word and 
Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.’ ” 

“ Before I tell any stories I am going to 
ask some questions. And first: What is a 
prophet ?” 

“ Can anybody answer, father ?” 

“ Yes, Maggie.” 

Josie was the first to answer : “ A prophet 
foretells the future — doesn’t he ?” 

“ Yes, and what else does he do?” 


PROPHET i PRIEST AND KING. 


65 


“ He teaches,” mother replied. 

“Did Christ ever foretell anything?” 

“ Didn’t he foretell the destruction of the 
temple?” asked Stephen. 

“ Yes ; he said not one stone should be 
left upon another. And he foretold the 
destruction of the city* of Jerusalem,” said 
Mr. Arnold. “ What else ?” 

“ His own death,” Mrs. Arnold answered. 

“ Yes, and many other things. And all 
have come to pass,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“Did everything come to pass that the 
prophets foretold ?” inquired Josie. 

“ Yes, if they spoke under God’s direction. 
Can any of you think of a time when a proph- 
et sanctioned what a king was going to do, 
and afterward, under God’s direction, told 
that king not to do it?” 

“ I know, father. It was Nathan. He told 
David to go on and build the temple, and 
that night the Lord came to him and said 
David must not do it. So he had to go and 
tell David not to do it. I read that chapter 
last Sunday.” Stephen made this answer in 
great haste, he was so afraid that some one 
would answer before him. 


66 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY , 


“ And prophets teach, you say, as well as 
foretell ? Did Christ teach ?” 

“ Oh yes, father/’ replied Maggie, for her 
father looked at her, “ I know that. He 
went all over the land teaching.” 

“ How does he teach us now ?” 

“ By the Bible,” Charlie answered. 

“The Catechism mentions another teacher 
besides the Word : what does it say ?” 

“ 4 Revealing to us, by* his word and 
Spirit/ ” answered Josie. 

“ Yes ; the Bible and the Holy Spirit 
both teach us,” said Mr. Arnold. 

And Mrs. Arnold added, “ Remember, too, 
what is revealed — ‘ the will of God for our 
salvation.’ ” 

“ Could we have found out for ourselves 
the will of God concerning our salvation? 
I mean the way in which God is willing to 
save us?” 

“ No, father,” replied both Josie and 
Stephen at once. 

“Do you remember the story we once 
read about a man who stumbled and fell 
in the Catacombs?” 

“ Oh yes, father. His lamp went out and 


PROPHET , ; PRIEST AND KING. 67 

lie broke the string that he had let run out 
as he walked,” said Charlie. 

“ And he was afraid he’d never get out,” 
added Maggie. “ But he found his string 
after feeling a long time on the ground 
for it.” 

“ He kept falling over stones,” said Char- 
lie. “It must have been dark as pitch.” 

“What has that to do with the Catechism, 
father?” asked Josie. 

“I have seen it used in explaining this 
question,” he replied. “ Man, in his estate 
of sin and misery, wanders hopelessly until 
he gets hold of the cord — I mean, until he 
gets hold of the word of God, and learns 
by the help of the Spirit how God wills to 
save him. This brings him out of darkness 
into light. Thanks be to God !” 

No one spoke for an instant ; then Mrs. 
Arnold said, “ Outwardly by his word, and 
inwardly by his Spirit, Christ makes known 
to us what God would have us know, believe 
and do to be saved.” 

“ That is well expressed,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ I found that thought somewhere,” said 
Mrs. Arnold. 


68 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ It’s a very good one. Take tlie Bible 
for your lamp, children.” 

“Tip Lewis did,” said Maggie. Maggie 
liked Tip Lewis better than any Sunday- 
school book she had ever read ; and I think 
she was pretty nearly right in liking it best. 
One Sabbath evening Mrs. Arnold and Ste- 
phen read it aloud, and Mr. Arnold said he 
thought it was an excellent book. 

“ ‘ How doth Christ execute the office of a 
priest,’ Josie ?” asked Mr. Arnold. 

She answered, “ ‘ Christ executeth the 
office of a priest, in his once offering up of 
himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, 
and reconcile us to God, and in making con- 
tinual intercession for us. ’ ” 

“ That is such a beautiful answer !” said 
Mrs. Arnold. 

“Do you think so, mother?” said Charlie. 

“ Yes, Charlie. I wish you could see it as 
I do.” 

“ Mother, you explain this,” said Mr. Ar- 
nold, who sometimes called his wife “ mother,” 
as the children did. 

“Oh no, I do not want to do that. But 
just think a moment how the Lord taught 


PROPHET ; PRIEST AND KING. 69 

his people by pictures. Every day in the 
temple the picture was of a lamb slain. — 
Hand me The Book, Maggie.” 

Mrs. Arnold sometimes called the Bible 
“ The Book,” because she said it was The 
Book of books — that is, the best book. 
Maggie handed her the Bible, and Mrs. Ar- 
nold found the place she wanted, and read : 
“ ‘ Now this is that which thou shalt offer 
upon the altar ; two lambs of the first year, 
day by day, continually. The one lamb 
thou shalt offer in the morning; and the 
other lamb thou shalt offer at even/ ” 
“Two every day?” asked Charlie as his 
mother closed the Bible. 

“ Yes , and these lambs, offered daily for 
years, were pictures of the Lamb of God, 
who taketh away the sin of the whole world. 
The priests were to sacrifice these lambs for 
the people. Christ Jesus is at the same time 
the Lamb and the Priest. He offers up 
himself, a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice.” 

“The law commanded the Jews to bring 
offerings to the altar to signify their sorrow 
for the sin they had committed. In the New 
Testament we are told that it was not possi- 


70 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ble for the blood of these animals to take 
away sin ; they were only to lead people to 
look to Jesus. We read, ‘The blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son clean seth us from all 
sin/ ” said Mr. Arnold. 

There was a moment’s pause, and Josie 
said, as if speaking to herself, “ And recon- 
ciles us to God.” 

“ Yes,” said Mr. Arnold. “ The priest 
was told to make atonement for the people. 
Look at that long word ; see how I write 
it.” 

He took an old letter out of his pocket, 
and with his pencil wrote on the back of 
the envelope, at-one-ment. 

“ Oh, I see what father means !” cried 
Stephen. “ He means it made them one 
with God — -just like people who have been 
quarreling and make up.” 

“ I’m always glad to make up — ain’t you, 
Charlie ?” asked Maggie. “ I mean, after a 
quarrel.” 

“ The sins of a man put him far from 
God,” said Mr. Arnold. “ But when he 
takes Christ for his Saviour, that makes 
him one with the Father. God forgives 


PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING. 71 

him for Jesus’ sake, and takes him into his 
love.” 

When Mr. Arnold paused Mrs. Arnold 
asked, “ What else did the priests use to 
do?” 

“ They went into the temple and prayed 
for the people,” answered Stephen. 

“ Yes. And who can repeat a verse about 
Jesus’ continual intercession ?” 

Josie recited: “ 4 He ever liveth to make 
intercession for them.’ ” 

“ Father, what does intercede mean ?” 
asked Maggie. 

“ Let Stephen tell you.” 

Stephen looked perplexed. He went to 
the dictionary to find out, and then said, 
“ Intercede means to pass between, to plead 
in favor of one.” 

“ It is beautiful,” said Josie. “ Jesus 
passes between God the Father and us, 
and he pleads for us.” 

“ And 4 reconcile ’ means to bring together, 
to restore,” said Stephen, who had turned 
over the leaves and was still looking into 
the dictionary. — “Any more big words you 
can’t understand, Maggie?” 


72 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Oh, you needn’t look in that big diction- 
ary any more,” said Maggie, who did not 
quite like her brother’s patronizing tone ; 
“ papa can tell me without looking.” 

Papa’s face gave a little twist at this, 
and he said, “Let us look at the answer 
and see the long words : ‘ Executeth, per- 

formeth.’ ” 

“That’s just as big a word, papa.” 

“ So it is, Maggie. And ‘ accomplish ’ is 
just as large. But I think you know what 
it means, don’t you ?” 

Maggie took up the Catechism, and, look- 
ing at the answer, very soberly said, “ It means 
to do what the priests did.” 

“ Yes. How many times does it say he 
offered himself?” 

And Maggie, still looking into the Cate- 
chism, answered, “ Once.” 

“And what does he satisfy by this offer- 

ing?” 

“ Divine justice,” Maggie answered. 

“ And what does ‘ continual intercession ’ 
mean ?” 

Maggie could not answer this ; and Josie 
said, “ He prays for us all the time.” 


PROPHET, PRIEST AND KING. * 73 

“ I heard Mrs. Blair ask Mrs. Seldon to 
pray all the time for the Church,” said 
Josie, “and she said she hadn’t time.” 

“ I shouldn’t think she had, with all those 
children of hers!” said Stephen.— “ Ought 
she, mother, to shut herself up and pray 
when her boys arid girls get into mischief 
just as soon as her back is turned ?” 

“ You wouldn’t do it, mother !” exclaimed 
Charlie. 

“She asked the same thing of me.” 

“ Well, I hope you won’t do it, for, if 
there’s anything I hate, it is to come home 
from school and not find you handy.” 

This made Mr. Arnold laugh heartily, 
and he said, “That’s just the way I feel 
when I come home.” 

“ Mother,” said Josie, “ don’t you think 
it’s wrong in Mrs. Blair to want people to 
neglect their children for the sake of pray- 
ing all the time?” 

“ You do not understand her, dear. She 
wants all the members of the Church to pray 
every time the clock strikes the hour.” 

“ Every hour ?” exclaimed two or three 
voices at once. 


74 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


44 Yes.” 

44 What ! must they say a long prayer 
every time?” questioned Charlie. 

“ No ; all they need to say is, 4 Lord, revive 
us !’ And they need not leave their work to 
do that.” 

“ 4 Revive P ” said Stephen. 44 1 never 
thought of the meaning of that word be- 
fore.” 

44 What does it mean, Stephen ?” 

44 Why, father, you know it means to live 
again.” 

44 And some of us in the Church are dead,” 
said Mr. Arnold, 44 and we need to be re- 
vived.” 

44 Now, papa, I don’t see what you mean,” 
exclaimed Maggie. 

Then her father explained to her that he 
meant that their faith and love seemed al- 
most dead. He said he was glad some 
persons were going to pray continually for 
a revival. 

44 But you can’t pray in the store, father,” 
said Maggie. 

44 Why not? I confess I am so busy I 
often forget it ; but as often as I think of 


PROPHET i PRIEST AND KING. 


it I say this short prayer; and I like to 
think that others are doing the same 
thing.” 

“ Christ can be doing something else 
while he makes continual prayer for us,” 
said Mrs. Arnold. “ He at the same time 
receives the praises of the glorified.” 

It was true, as Mr. Arnold and the chil- 
dren said : they felt disappointed if they 
came home and did not find the mother 
in her usual place. She was not fond of 
visiting from house to house, neither did 
she spend much time working in societies. 
She never condemned ladies who spent their 
time in this way ; indeed, she always praised 
them. But when they asked her to join them 
she used to say, “ My children take most of 
my time.” Ladies in surprise would answer, 
“Why, Mrs. Arnold, your children are too 
big to be much care.” — Then she would 
smile and say, “ If they were little I 
would feel more like leaving them to the 
care of nurses, but now they seem to want 
their mother to be with them.” — “ But your 
duty, Mrs. Arnold?” — “Yes, I am trying to 
do it.” 


76 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

And, do yon know, her husband and 
children were glad she thought it was her 
duty to be at home and ready to help them. 
It was pleasant to come from school and go 
right to mother’s place. When the front 
door was opened you never heard the chil- 
dren inquire, “ Where’s mother ?” They 
went directly to the spot where the moth- 
er, the book and sewing-basket were sure to 
be. But if it so happened that mother was 
not in her usual place, then the question rang 
through the house, “ Where in the world is 
mother ?” 

Mother sometimes liked a frolic, and one 
day she hid herself as she heard Charlie and 
Maggie coming. She heard their words of 
disappointment when they found her chair 
empty, and she heard Maggie say to Charlie, 
“ There! I told Jule Benedict that was just 
what I liked in mother — she was always here 
when we came home from school.” 

When at last mother was found she asked 
what they wanted. 

“ Oh, nothing; only we wanted to see 
you.” 

And when she knew that her children, 


PROPHET ; PRIEST AND KING. 77 

even big Stephen and Josie, liked to see 
her the first thing when they came home 
from school, do you think she was a foolish 
woman to make it convenient to be sitting 
in her chair just at that hour? And was it 
foolish to give her hair a touch and to peep 
in the glass to see if her collar was straight ? 
I think not. Once, when her husband 
laughed at her just a little for doing this, 
she said, “ After they have all gone to In- 
dia or China it will be pleasant for them to 
remember their mother as she sat waiting for 
them.” 

Then her husband kissed her and said, 
“ And it will be pleasant for mother to re- 
member how her children used to love to be 
with her.” 

But we are forgetting to tell you what else 
was said about the Catechism. 

Mr. Arnold said it was a grand thought 
to dwell upon — Christ’s continual pleading 
for us before the Father’s throne. Opening 
the Bible, he read, “Wherefore he is able 
also to save them to the uttermost that come 
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to 
make intercession for them.” 


78 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Then he told the children how the high 
priest used to go into the Most Holy Place 
alone once every year, bearing the names 
of the children of Israel before the Lord. 
“ Christ,” he said “ remembers us in the 
presence of the Father; and, ‘seeing w£ 
have such an High Priest, we may come 
boldly to the throne of grace.’ ” 

Mr. Arnold stopped speaking, and Grand- 
mother Morris reverently finished the verse, 
saying in her gentle way, “ ‘ that we may 
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time 
of need.” 

Grandmother Morris was a very quiet old 
lady. The children all loved her. She had 
never been cross to them, and never seemed 
disturbed by anything they did, unless they 
quarreled. If any of them quarreled she 
went quickly out of the room, saying as she 
did so, “ Call me when peace is restored.” 
They soon learned to avoid quarrels when 
Grandmother Morris was present. Maggie 
said grandma was too old now to get up and 
walk away, and she proposed that they should 
always run out of the room when they want- 
ed to quarrel. 


PROPHET ; PRIEST AND KING. 79 

“ My time of rest is not far off, children,” 
continued Grandmother Morris ; “ I have 
not much longer to stay. ‘ I will fear no 
evil : for thou art with me.’ ” She took up 
her large Bible, and, rising, said, “ Come, my 
little Maggie, help me to bed.” 

Maggie always went up stairs with grand- 
mother whenever she spent the evening in 
the parlor. Sometimes she retired directly 
after tea, and if she did not feel very well 
she had her tea in her own room. 

As she left the parlor Mr. Arnold said, 
“Your mother has had an eventful life, Lu- 
cretia. Didn’t you say once she had written 
it all out for the children ?” 

“ Yes : she told me so herself,” replied 
Mrs. Arnold. 

“ For us f” asked Josie. “ I would like to 
read it.” 

“ So would I ;” “ So would I,” exclaimed 
Stephen and Charlie. 


CHAPTER YI. 


CHRIST OUR KING. 

OW doth Christ execute the office of a 



pi n g V ” asked Mr. Arnold the next 
Sabbath evening. 

“ Father always looks at Josie,” said 
Maggie. 

“ And Josie always knows/’ said father. — 
“ Come, Josie.” 

Josie looked pleased at this remark of her 
father’s, and without hesitation she answer- 
ed, “ ‘ Christ executeth the office of a king, 
in subduing us to himself, in ruling and de- 
fending us, and in restraining and conquer- 
ing all his and our enemies.’ ” 

“ What is the first thing our King does, 
Stephen ?” 

“ He subdues us to himself.” 

“ Yes. We are by nature his enemies, 
strange to say. His first conquest as a King 


80 


CHRIST OUR KING. 


81 


is to turn his foes into friends. After sub- 
duing us, he rules over us. How does he 
rule ?” 

Mr. Arnold happened to look at Maggie 
as he spoke, and he was surprised at the 
ready answer she gave : “ Papa, he rules by 
love.” 

44 That is the happiest way of being ruled; 
I wish every one was willing so to be gov- 
erned. But many are ruled by his provi- 
dence ; they are led in a way they know 
not. And some are driven by severe chas- 
tisements.” 

44 1 like the love best, papa.” 

44 So do I, Maggie,” responded her mother. 

44 He defends us too,” said Josie. 

44 Yes; his providence often hedges us in 
when we are ready to rush into dangers seen 
and unseen,” said Mr. Arnold, 44 and his 
strong arm is ever outstretched for our de- 
fence.” 

44 What does 4 restraining and conquering 
all his and our enemies ’ mean?” inquired 
Stephen. 

“ Who and what are our enemies, Ste- 
phen.?” asked his father. 


82 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ I’ve heard you say, father, men were 
often their own worst enemies/’ said Stephen. 

“ Yes. Our worst foes are often found in 
our own hearts. Besides these, we have 
many enemies without. Evil in a multitude 
of forms meets us at every step.” 

“ But Christ does not stop it all, father,” 
said Stephen with a perplexed look. 

“ No, not yet. But does that make you 
think that Satan has more power than 
Christ?” 

“Oh no, father. I know Christ has the 
most power, but why don’t he kill all our 
enemies now ?” 

“ Because, he does not judge it best to do 
so. Remember, he is your King, and kings 
may do as they please. He is a wise and 
loving King, and he thinks it best that we 
shall fight our foes and his foes until he calls 
us home to get our crown.” 

Stephen sat thinking for a moment, and 
his father added no more until Charlie said, 
“ He doesn’t like rebels.” 

“ No, Charlie. The best thing for us all 
to do is to enlist in the service of this great 
King, for his throne will stand when all^the 


CHRIST OUR KING. 


83 


thrones of earthly kings have crumbled into 
dust.” 

And Mrs. Arnold said, “ He rules by love, 
if you do not despise his love. But despisers 
shall miserably perish.” 

“ Miss Clarke said, ‘ Christ stamps his 
image on the hearts of his people/ ” said 
Josie, “‘as kings stamp their own image on 
their coins.’ ” 

“ It’s pretty dry to-night,” said Maggie, 
with a yawn. 

“ What, Maggie ?” asked her mother. 

“ The Catechism, mother. And we haven’t 
had the three stories, and I guess I’d better 
go to bed.” 

Maggie’s tone and look were so doleful that 
they made them all laugh, but mother said it 
was bedtime ; and Charlie and Maggie got 
their kisses and left the room. 

Soon after this Maggie heard the little 
children in the primary department give 
answers which pleased her so much that 
she remembered them and told her father. 

And this was what she heard : “ Why do 
you need Christ as a Prophet ? Because I 
am ignorant. — Why do you need Christ as 


84 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


a Priest ? Because I am guilty. — Why do 
you need Christ as a King ? Because I am 
weak and helpless/’ 

“ Kitty Lyle says she don’t like family 
worship,” said Maggie the next morning at 
breakfast, placing great emphasis on the 
word “ don’t.” 

“Why not?” asked her father. 

“Because she says she can’t understand 
any of it.” 

“She is not a dull little girl,” remarked 
mamma, 

“ She does not look dull,” said papa. 

“ No, papa, she’s real bright : I heard 
Miss Gray say so yesterday. She’s up head 
always in spelling.” 

“Why can’t she understand the Bible, 
then?” asked papa. 

“ Because her papa don’t explain it,” grave- 
ly answered little Maggie. “ It isn’t nice a 
bit, the way they do. Katie’s mother is 
always just buttoning her dress, and her 
papa is in a hurry, and Jem and Neddie 
come in when they’re half through. And 
her papa reads fast, and don’t tell Kitty 
what he’s reading about, and he makes a 


CHRIST OUR KING. 


85 


little prayer so low that Kitty can’t hear 
half he says; and then the breakfast-bell 
rings before they get through.” 

Maggie had to stop for breath, and the 
rest laughed to see how earnest she was. 

“ I don’t think it’s anything to laugh 
about,” Maggie added. “ I wouldn’t like 
it, either ; I’d come down late too if I were 
Kitty.” 

“Then you wouldn’t get any breakfast,” 
said Stephen. 

“No,” said Josie. “Didn’t you hear 
Maggie say they had breakfast after 
prayers ?” 

“ Oh yes ; I forgot,” said Stephen. 

“ Mr. Lyle isn’t as ’cute as papa,” remark- 
ed Charlie. 

“How so?” asked his father, trying to 
look as if he didn’t know. 

“ Why, you know well enough, papa. 
You have breakfast first, to catch us all for 
prayers,” said Charlie. 

“ Well, they’re worth being caught for, 
are they not ?” asked his father. 

“Yes,” said Charlie. “I think the Bible’s 
the nicest book when you explain it. You 


86 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


make us feel as if we were right there 
helping.” 

“ When there’s a battle going on,” said 
Stephen. 

“ Yes, that’s what I mean,” said Charlie. 

“ I told Kitty about the battle,” said Mag- 
gie, who had been trying for some time to 
get a chance to speak. 

“ What battle ?” asked Charlie. 

“ Jericho.” 

“ Why, that wasn’t a battle at all,” cried 
Charlie. “ Don’t you remember they only 
marched round — ” 

“ Yes, I mean that,” said Maggie, inter- 
rupting him. “I told her how they blew 
the trumpets ; and she liked it ever so 
much.” 

“ Did you tell her about the Gibeonites ?” 
asked Josie. 

“ Yes ; she liked that about the old cloaks 
and wine-bottles.” 

“ Sacks,” said Stephen. 

“■Yes, sacks, and old mended shoes,” said 
Maggie. 

“And mouldy bread,” added Charlie. 

“I don’t see how they could tell so many 


CHRIST OUR KING. 


87 


lies,” said Stephen. “ They said their bread 
was hot when they started, and their clothes 
and shoes new.” 

“ Yes, and they said their wine-bottles were 
new,” added Josie. 

“ What do we have to-day, papa — any 
more battles?” asked Charlie as his father 
took up the Bible to read. 

“ Yes, we have a fine battle for this morn- 
ing. Get out your Scripture Atlas and look 
for Upper and Lower Beth-horon.” 

Charlie had an atlas which his Sabbath- 
school teacher had given him. In this he 
used to find the places as his father read 
about them. It was a little atlas — very lit- 
tle. Charlie kept it in the table-drawer, but 
he might easily have carried it in his pocket ; 
only, boys’ pockets have so much else in 
them that there is hardly room for books. 

“ On which map, father ?” asked Charlie 
as he opened the drawer and drew out the 
little atlas. 

“ Canaan as divided among the tribes. 
Look north-west from Jerusalem, only a 
little way.” 

“ Oh, here it is ;” and Charlie, after show- 


88 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


-ing the place to each member of the family, 
sat down, holding open the atlas and waiting 
for his father to read. 

“ You see this place is in among the 
mountains ?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Gibeon was besieged, and these Gib- 
eonites sent to Joshua to come and help 
them.” 

“ Served them right,” said Charlie. “ I 
hope Joshua didn’t go.” 

“Joshua had made a covenant of peace 
with them, Charlie, and he felt bound to 
help them. Let me read about it.” And 
Mr. Arnold began reading the tenth chapter 
of Joshua. Now and then he stopped to 
explain something or to answer some ques- 
tion, for he allowed them to stop him with 
questions if there was anything they wanted 
to know. 

“ The Gibeonites said, * Come up quickly,’ ” 
. said grandmother. 

“And Captain Joshua wasn’t behindhand,” 
added Stephen. 

“ No, Stephen. He marched all night, 
and when the sun rose he was at the foot 


CHRIST OUR KING. 


89 


of the heights of Gibeon, where all those 
kings had their camps.” 

Mr. Arnold read about the battle and the 
panic, and how Joshua with his army chased 
them “ along the way that goeth up to Beth- 
horon,” and then “in the going down to 
Beth-horon.” Charlie looked again at the 
map to see Upper and Lower Beth-horon, 
and Maggie said, “You don’t see the great 
hailstones on the map, but it almost seems 
as if we could hear them when papa reads 
about them.” 

“ So it does,” said Josie. 

“ ‘ They were more which died with hail- 
stones than they whom the children of Is- 
rael slew with the sword,’ ” read Mr. Ar- 
nold. 

“ They must have been very large,” re- 
marked Stephen. 

And when Mr. Arnold read about the sun 
standing still because Captain Joshua asked 
to have it so, Stephen, who was studying as- 
tronomy, began to reason about it; but his 
father said, “ We have not time to talk about 
that now; only, I will say that I think God 
just made the light last longer than in an 


90 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ordinary day, which he could do in his own 
way. We often see the sun’s rays after the 
sun is hidden from sight.” 

“ Anyway,” said Stephen, who was not 
willing to let pass this chance of showing 
his knowledge, “ the sun stands still and lets 
the earth go round it .” 

“ Does it ?” said Maggie. “ How much 
you do know !” 

Stephen looked pleased. 

“ But the ancients did not know that, 
Stephen.” 

“ Didn’t they, father?” 

“ We will have to leave the rest of the 
battle till this evening,” said Mr. Arnold; 
“it is almost time for us to go now. Let 
us pray.” 

And they all kneeled, while Mr. Arnold 
offered a short prayer which even Maggie 
could understand perfectly; and then Mr. 
Arnold started for his store and the chil- 
dren prepared for school. 


CHAPTER VII. 


SAD NEWS FROM INDIA. 

“ rjIWO foreign letters for mother!” ex- 
claimed Josie, as father drew letters 
and papers from his pocket. 

Foreign letters for Mrs. Arnold were not 
uncommon, for she had three brothers who 
were missionaries. Mother took the letters 
very soberly this time, for she was expecting 
sad news, and as she left the room she said, 
“ Don’t wait tea for me. — You take my 
place, Josie.” 

“ What’s the matter with mother?” asked 
Charlie. 

“ Letters from Uncle Edward and Uncle 
Tom,” said Josie. 

“ Well, what made her look as if she was 
going to cry ?” asked Charlie. 

“ Uncle Tom was very feeble the last time 


9L 


92 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


she heard,” said Mr. Arnold, “and I fear he 
is dead.” 

“ He couldn’t write if he were dead,” said 
Maggie. 

“ No, Maggie,” father answered t soberly, 
“ but this letter was in a strange hand.” 

“ I did not notice that,” said Josie ; “ I 
only looked at the post- mark.” 

“ Mother noticed it,” said Stephen, “ for 
I saw her turn white as the wall.” 

“ Uncle Ed wrote his, for I saw his great 
big writing ’way across the table,” said 
Maggie. 

They always laughed when Uncle Ed- 
ward’s letters came — Grandmother Morris 
said that was the way to write, so that 
everybody could see to read it. 

“ Yes, Uncle Ed’s all right,” said Charlie ; 
“ he don’t look as if he could ever get sick. 
— Don’t you know how fat he was, Mag?” 

“ Yes ; he held me on his lap and told me 
such queer stories about China. I wish he’d 
come back.” 

“ I’d like to see Baby Eddie,” remarked 
Josie. 

“ I wonder if he walks ?” said Maggie. 


SAD NEWS FROM INDIA. 


93 


“ Why, Maggie, he must be four years old 
by this time,” said Stephen. 

“ Is he?” said Maggie. “ But he couldn’t 
walk much if they bind up his feet and 
make him wear those queer little shoes.” 

“ Uncle won’t let them do that,” said 
Stephen. 

“You know, Stephen,” said Maggie, in 
her sober tone, “ Eddie hasn’t any mother 
to take care of him and see his shoes fit 
him, as mamma does.” 

“They don’t bind up the boys’ feet,” said 
Mr. Arnold. “ I wonder you remember 
them so well, Maggie ; you were only six 
years old when they were here.” 

“ She’s heard grandma talk about them 
every day,” said Josie, “and she looks at 
their pictures.” 

“Where’s grandma?” asked Charlie. 

“ I think mother must be reading the 
letters to her,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ What relation is she to them ?” asked 
Maggie. 

“ Why, Uncle Edward and Uncle Tom are 
her sons,” said Stephen. “ Didn’t you know 
that?” 


94 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


u Oh yes, grandma did tell me that; I 
remember now,” said Maggie. 

Tea was over, and the children had been 
nearly an hour in the parlor before Mrs. 
Arnold ,ame down. Josie and Stephen had 
wanted to carry something up for her to eat, 
but Mr. Arnold said they must all wait until 
she came down, and not disturb her by going 
up. 

She held both letters in her hand when 
she came down, and as she took her seat she 
said, “ Mother will not come down stairs 
this evening ; I have just helped her to bed. 
Tom and Carrie are both dead.” 

“ Both dead !” exclaimed Mr. Arnold. 
And the children echoed his words, “ Both 
dead !” 

Mrs. Arnold read the letter. It was from 
a missionary who lived in the same mission- 
house with them in India. It told of Mr. 
Thomas Morris’s lingering illness, and of 
his wife’s sudden sickness and death. Mrs. 
Arnold paused before finishing the letter, 
and looked around upon the children. 
“ Poor little orphaned Paul !” she said ; 
and her tears fell fast. 


SAD NEWS FROM INDIA. 


95 


“What will he do, mamma ?” inquired 
Maggie, trying hard not to cry. 

“ What would you like to have him do ?” 
asked her mother. 

“ Let him come here, mother,” said Josie. 
“ Do, mother !” 

“ How 7 big is he ?” asked Charlie. 

“ Seven years old,” replied mother. 

“ You have a note there in Tom’s own 
handwriting, have you not?” asked Mr. 
Arnold. 

“ Yes, he wrote it on his deathbed. I 
cannot trust myself to read it to you now. 
But he gives their little lame Paul to us. 
Will you take him, George?” 

“ Certainly,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“Is he lame yet, mother?” asked Charlie, 
with eager sympathy. 

“Yes, he will always be lame,” said his 
mother. 

“ Till he gets to heaven,” remarked 
Maggie. 

“ What do you say, children ?” said Mr. 
Arnold; “shall we take little Paul?” 

They all said Yes. And then mother 
smiled through her tears, and said, “And 


96 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


this is not all. Edward writes that his baby 
is already on the way to me.” 

“ It never rains but it pours,” cried 
Stephen. 

“ You know I offered to take him as soon 
as we heard of his mother’s death.” 

“ Yes,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ And now he says it is impossible to keep 
Eddie with him any longer; and Mrs. Snow- 
den is coming home, and this is too good an 
opportunity to be lost.” 

“ Mother’s glad to get a baby, I do be- 
lieve,” said Charlie. 

“ But you said he wasn’t a baby any more,” 
said Maggie. “ I wish he were still in long 
dresses.” 

“ So do I, Maggie.” said her mother. 

“ He is not much more than a baby, Lu- 
cretia,” remarked Mr. Arnold. “ But if you 
are not afraid of the care, I am sure I am 
willing and able to take them.” 

“Two children, both boys !” said Maggie. 
“I wish some of them were girls; we’ve got 
boys enough already.” 

Stephen drew himself up, and looked a 
little taller, and Charlie said contemptuously 




SAD NEWS FROM INBIA. 


97 


“ They’re so little they ain’t much better 
than girls.” 

“ They’ll grow,” said Maggie. 

There was no disputing this fact. 

“Only give ’em time,” remarked Stephen, 
as he left the parlor to study his lessons. 

“ It will be a great deal of care for you, 
Lucretia,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“I’ll help you all I can, mother,” said 
Josie. 

“ So will I,” said Maggie. 

“ Even if they are boys ?” asked her 
father. 

“ Well, papa, you know boys do tease so ! 
But then they won’t do it for a good while — 
Stephen’s worse than Charlie — and they 
won’t be bis; as Stephen for a good while; 
will they ?’ ; 

“ No,” said her father, laughing. “ And 
by the time they are as old as Stephen yon 
will be too large and old to mind teasing.” 

“ I think she’s too old now to play with 
dolls,” said Charlie. 

“Well, I don’t. — Do you, papa?” 

“ No,” said papa. 

“Two against one !” exclaimed Maggie, 



98 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

joyfully. “ So there, Mr. Charles, you’re 
beat !” 

Maggie had fixed herself comfortably on 
papa’s lap, her favorite place. 

“ You’ll have to give up that place to 
Paul,” said Charlie, “and mamma will 
hold Eddie.” 

“ I won’t !” exclaimed Maggie decidedly. 

Papa gently laid his hand over his little 
girl’s mouth and whispered in her ear, “ ‘ For 
even Christ pleased not himself.’ ” 

Maggie did not speak for a few moments, 
and then she said, “I’ll do it.” And they 
all knew if Maggie once made a promise she 
would try very hard to keep it. After a 
moment’s silence she said, “ He won’t be a 
heathen, will he ?” 

“ Who ?” asked her mother. 

“ Why, Eddie.” 

This made them all laugh, and Charlie 
said he hoped Eddie would bring a good lot 
of idols over with him. 

China and its queer people were now talk- 
ed about at every meal, and in the evenings 
the library was searched to find books about 
this far-off land. 



SAD NEWS FROM INDIA . 


99 


The time fixed for Eddie’s arrival was 
drawing near. Every evening Maggie ran 
to meet her father with the question, “ Has 
Eddie come yet?” She had a great desire 
to see him, and she wondered and questioned 
much about his looks. The children all agreed 
that he would not wear little Chinese shoes, 
but they could not agree about his dress. 
Charlie thought he would wear clothes 
like the Chinese boys, and Josie was sure 
he would not. 

“ Josie,” said Stephen, “don’t you remem- 
ber Uncle Edward told us about the girls in 
his school — how their feet grew large, and 
they were so ashamed when they left school 
and went back to their friends ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And he said they made a false heel, and 
fastened it under the middle of the shoe in 
such a way that it made the foot look small,” 
added Stephen. 

“ And they wore pantalettes,” said Josie. 

“If once a foot has been thoroughly 
bandaged,” said mamma, “ it is almost 
impossible to bring it back to its right 
shape.” 



100 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“What a strange thing to do !” said 
Maggie. 

“ It’s better than squeezing the waist, as 
our American ladies do,” said Stephen, who 
was beginning to study about the lungs and 
heart and all the different members of the 
body. 

“ I don’t think so — do you, mamma ?” 

“ There is a great deal more suffering in 
foot-binding,” said Mrs. Arnold ; “ but tight 
lacing may do as much harm in the long 
run.” 

“ How do the little boys dress in China, 
mamma ?” asked Maggie. 

“ I don’t remember, Maggie. I know the 
men and women wear loose flowing trousers 
and long, double-breasted tunics or sacques.” 

“ Both di *ess alike ?” asked Maggie. 

“ They all look alike in pictures,” said 
Charlie ; “ I never can tell which are men 
and which are women.” 

“ Yes, they do look alike,” said his moth- 
er, “ but Uncle Edward says the women wear 
gayer colors and more embroidery than the 
men; and then they dress their hair dif- 
ferently.” 



SAD NEWS FROM INDIA. 


101 


“I remember,” said Josie, “Uncle Ed- 
ward said the women spent a good deal of 
time arranging their hair. The servants 
even take an hour to dress theirs, and 
ladies of leisure take two hours.” 

“They can’t have much to do,” said 
Stephen. 

“ No,” said his mother. “ In Japan, 
Mrs. Gale says, the women play with 
dolls.” 

“ How funny, mamma ! I wonder if they 
do in China?” asked Maggie. 

“ That would suit you, Maggie. I believe 
you will play with dolls till you’re big as 
mamma.” 

“ Now, Charlie, you know better than 
that !” indignantly exclaimed Maggie. “ If 
papa thinks it all right, I don’t see what you 
have to say about it.” 

“ You won’t be the baby any more when 
Eddie and Paul come,” said Charlie. 

“I don’t want to be the baby,” said Mag- 
gie. “ And after they come I’m going to say 
‘ Father ’ and * Mother,’ and you had better 
try too, Mr. Charles.” 

“ That is a good idea,” said Mrs. Arnold. 



102 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“You are both getting too old to say ‘ Papa ’ 
and ‘ Mamma/ ” 

“ All right/’ said Charlie, “ if I don’t for- 
get it.” 

“ I’ll remind you,” remarked Maggie with 
dignity. 



CHAPTER VIII. 


THE EXALTATION. 

“ T^VERYTHING Chinese interests this 

-Li family,” remarked Maggie with great, 
gravity one day as she came in from Elsie 
Green’s. She carried a book given to her 
by Judge Green, so that she could read a 
Chinese story. 

“ And I suppose you told Judge Green 
that everything Chinese interests this fam- 
ily ?” said her father. 

“ Yes, papa.” 

“ And they can all hear this story, I sup- 
pose?” said Stephen. 

“ Yes, Stephen.” 

The story of Leng Tso, the Chinese slave- 
girl,* proved very interesting, but Maggie 
one day laid down the book with an energy 

* The Chinese Slave- Girl, by the Rev. J. A. Davis: Presby- 
terian Board of Publication, Philadelphia. 



104 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


that made everybody look at her to see what 
was the matter. She did not leave them 
long in suspense, but, speaking slowly and 
decidedly, said, “ Now I’ve made up my 
mind ; I won’t read any more of Leng Tso.” 

“ I know why,” said Stephen : “ because it 
makes you cry. I’ve been watching you 
trying to hide your tears. Pshaw ! how 
easy girls do cry !” 

“ Now, Stephen !” exclaimed Maggie. 

Before Maggie could say any more Mr. 
Arnold looked ujd from his newspaper and 
said, “ I stopped reading it for that very 
reason, Maggie.” 

“ Why, father !” cried Stephen in great 
astonishment. “ It didn’t make me cry.” 

‘‘You needn’t be so proud of your hard 
heart,” said Maggie. “If papa isn’t ashamed 
to cry, I won’t be any more.” 

“ Father,” said Stephen, “ I heard Mr. 
French and Mr. Biglow talking about mis- 
sions to-day, and Mr. Biglow said he did not 
believe in wasting money that way. ‘ Why,’ 
he said, ‘ look at a great country like China ; 
what can a handful of men do there ?” 

“ And what reply did Mr. French make?” 



THE EXALTATION. 


105 


“He said he was not very familiar with 
the subject, but he had no doubt they had 
accomplished something. I wish you’d been 
there, father ; you could have told them 
something about it, I know.” 

“ Yes ; I could tell them that by God’s 
help those few missionaries have wrought 
wonders.” 

Mr. Arnold rose as he spoke, and, opening 
a drawer, looked for a moment over some 
papers, and then read : “ When Morrison 
went out it was not possible to preach the 
gospel.” 

“When did he go out, father?” asked 
Stephen. 

“ In 1807. When Hong-Kong was hand- 
ed over to the English by the treaty of 1842 
there were not more than six converts in all 
China. Now (in 1879) there are about thir- 
teen thousand professing Christians. It is esti- 
mated that there have been fifteen thousand 
converted since missionary work began.” 

On the next Sabbath evening China was 
again the subject of conversation, until Josie 
said, “ Father has been holding the Catechism 
ever so long, waiting to begin.” 


106 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Father immediately asked Josie this 
question, “ 4 Wherein consisteth Christ’s 
exaltation ?’ ” 

44 4 Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his 
rising again from the dead on the third day, 
in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at 
the right hand of God the Father, and in 
coming to judge the world at the last day,’ ” 
she answered promptly. 

44 His humiliation means his being brought 
low, and his exaltation means his being lifted 
up, Maggie.” 

44 That’s a good papa, to tell me before I 
ask !” said Maggie. 

44 First, we ought to pick the answer to 
pieces ; you always do, father,” said Stephen. 

44 Doesn’t it always make it plain ?” 

44 Oh yes, sir.” 

44 First, then : Did not Christ’s power to 
come out of the grave raise him above all 
ordinary men ? Did it not prove him to be 
God as well as man ?” 

44 Yes,” answered Stephen. 

44 The next step of his exaltation — what 
was it, Josie?” 

44 His ascending up into heaven.” 


THE EXALTATION. 


107 


“ Who saw him ascend ?” 

“ The apostles/’ said grandmother. 

Grandmother seldom answered a question, 
for, you remember, she was a very quiet old 
lady. But when she did speak, Bible lan- 
guage seemed most natural to her. So this 
time, after saying, “ The apostles,” she went 
on and gave the verses in Luke : “ ‘ And he 
led them out as far as to Bethany : and he 
lifted up his hands and blessed them. And 
it came to pass, while he blessed them, he 
was parted from them, and carried up into 
heaven/ ” 

Stephen slyly opened the Bible to see if 
grandma was giving the exact words, but he 
could not find the place. When grandma 
saw him turning the leaves she said, “ Luke, 
twenty-fourth chapter, near the end.” 

“She even knows just where to find it!” 
whispered Stephen to his mother. 

Maggie said, “ I wonder if all grand- 
mothers know the Bible as grandma does ?” 

“ The next is — ” Mr. Arnold looked at 
Josie. 

“‘Sitting at the right hand of God the 
Father/ ” Josie answered. 


108 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Does the Bible tell us that Christ sits at 
the right hand of God ?” asked Mr. Arnold. 
— “ How is that, mother?” 

Grandmother Morris looked at Mr. Arnold 
an instant, and then said, “ Why, certainly, 
George. It says, ‘Seek those things which 
are above, where Christ sitteth at the right 
hand of God .’ And you know dying Ste- 
phen saw ‘ Jesus standing on the right hand 
of God.’ ” 

“ Oh yes,” said Mr. Arnold. 

And Josie said in a low tone, “ Father’s 
only trying to draw out grandmother. He 
knows well enough.” 

“ What comes last, Stephen ?” 

“His coming to judge the world at the 
last day.” 

“ When will that be ?” 

“I don’t know, sir.” 

“ Doesn’t any one know ?” 

“ No, father — I guess not.” 

And grandma said, “‘Of that day and 
hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels 
of heaven, but my Father only.’” 

“ Some people make believe they know,” 
said Stephen. 


THE EXALTATION. 


109 


Notwithstanding Maggie’s decided remark 
about reading “ The Chinese Slave - Girl , she 
soon took it up again, for she was really too 
much interested in the story of Leng Tso to 
give it up. Stephen came in and found her 
too deeply absorbed in the book to answer 
him when he spoke. 

“Mag is reading Leng Tso again,” re- 
ported Stephen at the tea-table. 

“ They’ve got through with the tigers 
now,” said Maggie. 

Mrs. Arnold took up the book and read 
aloud Leng Tso’s conversation with a sick 
woman. This woman asked, “Why are 
you always happy ? You do not scold and 
fret as many do ; you act as if the sun never 
went down in your life — as though you al- 
ways had sunshine.” And Leng Tso an- 
swered, “There is a sun in my heart that 
does not go down. If all is dark outside, 
there is light there, and I live in that light.” 
When the sick woman said that her life was 
all cloudy and rainy, Leng Tso told her she 
must get above the clouds — she must ask 
God to lift her up. 

The whole conversation was very beauti- 


110 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ful, and as Mrs. Arnold finished reading 
it she looked up at Josie, who said, 

“ Mother, I’ve read it twice. Isn't it beau- 
tiful ?” 

Josie never forgot it. Leng Tso, with all 
her trials, was happier than thousands who 
are surrounded with earthly comforts. Josie 
also remembered that this Chinese woman 
tried to lead others to the Saviour. One 
poor woman could not understand how free- 
ly Jesus gives salvation. “ Must you not pay 
for it ?” she said. “ I am poor, and have 
nothing to give. To get favors from our 
gods we must make offerings, or promise 
so to do.” — Leng Tso told her that God in- 
vites us to come and take freely of the water 
of life. — “ Who pays, then ?” asked the hea- 
then woman. — “ No one ; it is all for nothing.” 
— “ Nothing? How can that be? People 
do not give great things for nothing.” 
Leng Tso told her that Jesus paid the 
price, and so the gift was free. Then the 
inquirer said, “ I thought somebody must 
pay. Why does he pay? What does he 
get back?” And she was much surprised, 
when Leng Tso replied, “ Nothing.” 


CHAPTER IX. 

KITTY LYLE’S VISIT. 

“ TTERE comes Maggie with something on 
her mind/’ remarked Stephen, as his 
little sister came into the room and walked 
soberly up to her mother. 

She took no notice of Stephen’s remark, 
for she seemed to be thinking how to begin 
to tell her mother something. Twice she 
said “Mother — ” and then she stopped. 

“ Oat with it, Mag !” exclaimed Charlie. 
“Don’t be afraid of mother.” 

Father laughed at this, and mother said, 
“What is it, Maggie?” 

“ Mother — ” began Maggie again. 

“ Yes, you said as much as that before,” 
remarked Stephen in a dry tone. 

“ Mother, can I have Kitty Lyle to visit 
us?” 


m 


112 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Kitty Lyle? Why do you want her, 
Maggie?” asked her mother. 

“ That is not such a terrible thing to ask,” 
added Mr. Arnold. “ Let her come. — Don’t 
you say so, mother ?” 

“I have no objections,” replied Mrs. Ar- 
nold. ‘‘When do you want her?” 

“ I never heard of inviting people to come 
to visit you who lived in the same place,” said 
Charlie. — “ Mag, you don’t know how to do 
things.” 

“ Well, Charlie, I want — ” 

“ What do you want of Kitty Lyle ? why 
don’t you send for Elsie’s cousin ? I’d go 
to the depot and bring her home,” said 
Charlie. 

“ Wait a moment, Charlie,” said his fa- 
ther. — “Tell us, Maggie, why you want 
Kitty, and when she is to come, and all 
about it. — You said she could come, didn’t 
you, mother?” 

“ Oh yes,” answered Mrs. Arnold. 

“ Why, father, Mr. and Mrs. Lyle are go- 
ing away, to be gone over Sunday, and I 
thought if you and mother would let her 
come it would be real nice.” 


KITTY LYLE'S VISIT. 


113 


“ And what will Jim and Neddie do?” 
asked her father. 

“ Oh, they’ll get along with Bridget, but 
Kitty don’t like her.” 

“ Don’t like Bridget !” exclaimed Mr. Ar- 
nold, opening his eyes in a funny way and 
speaking as if he was very much surprised. 
“Why not?” 

Maggie and all the children laughed at 
his tone, and Maggie said, “ You wouldn’t 
like her, either.” 

“ Perhaps not. Why ?” 

“Because she isn’t fair to Kitty. She 
makes her give up everything to those 
boys.” 

The tone in which Maggie said “ those 
boys ” was not complimentary to the boys. 
I think Bridget would have resented it if 
she had been there. 

As Bridget was not present, Mrs. Arnold 
tried to take the boys’ part: “They’re nice 
little boys, Maggie, I’m sure.” 

“Now, mother! you don’t know them. 
Kitty has to give up all the time to them ; 
Bridget makes such a fuss if she don’t.” 

“ I wouldn’t do it,” said Charlie. 


114 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Does her mother make her give up to 
the boys?” 

“ No, mamma. Her mother is real fair 
about it, but, you see, her mother’s going 
away. And then — ” Maggie hesitated, 
but a smile and nod from her father en- 
couraged her to go on — “then she can be 
to family worship and hear how plain fa- 
ther makes it.” 

“Makes what?” asked Stephen. 

“ Makes the Bible.” 

“And we’ll give her some Catechism,” 
said Stephen. 

“ When does she want to come, Mag ?” 

“ She don’t know a bit about it yet, Char- 
lie ; only I just hinted at it.” 

“ How broad a hint ?” inquired Mr. Ar- 
nold. 

“ I didn’t mean to give her any,” replied 
Maggie, “ but when she was telling me how 
she hated to be left alone with Bridget, it 
popped into my heart to have her here.” 

“ And what did you say, Maggie ?” asked 
her mother. 

“ I said she must come here ; and then I 
remembered I must ask you first.” 


KITTY LYLE’S VISIT. 115 

“Would you call that a hint , father?” 
asked Stephen, laughing. 

“ Hardly. — Go on, Maggie.” 

Maggie was a little annoyed over the 
smiles and interruptions, but she managed 
at last to get Kitty’s visit arranged to her 
great satisfaction. Mr. and Mrs. Lyle were 
going on Friday ; Kitty was to be invited to 
come home from school with Maggie on Fri- 
day afternoon. Then, as Maggie said, they 
could play all the rest of Friday and all of 
Saturday. Sabbath they would go to church 
and Sabbath-school together, and in the 
evening she would be “at the Catechism.” 

Kitty’s mother seemed almost as much 
pleased as Kitty when Maggie gave the in- 
vitation, and she said there was no place 
where she would rather have Kitty go. 
You should have seen Maggie’s face when 
she repeated this to her mother. They 
were all alone, and as Maggie told it she 
kissed her mother, and said, “ I don’t won- 
der she wants her to come here, mother, for 
I heard her tell Judge Green she thought 
you were a lovely woman. And I think 
you are.” 


116 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Mrs. Arnold kissed Maggie heartily, and 
said, “ I guess all little girls think their 
mothers lovely.” 

“Belle Briggs can’t, possibly.” 

Mrs. Arnold laughed at this, and Maggie 
kissed her two or three times. 

“ Josie will sleep in the spare room, Mag- 
gie, so that you and Kitty may have your 
room to yourselves all the time, day and 
night.” 

“ Oh, how nice ! And they won’t be 
home till Tuesday, maybe.” 

The visit proved entirely to Maggie’s satis- 
faction. Josie did a good many kind things 
besides leaving her place in the bedroom, so 
that Kitty began to wish she had a big sister. 
Stephen and Charlie were on their best be- 
havior, and “ didn’t tease a bit.” I don’t 
know exactly how to account for this, unless 
it was because Kitty made such a short visit. 
Perhaps if she had stayed a week they might 
have failed ; but as it was, Maggie was de- 
lighted, and Kitty wished Jim and Neddie 
were grown up. 

There was only one thing in the whole 
visit to trouble Maggie, and Stephen and 


KITTY LYLE'S VISIT. 


117 


Charlie had nothing to do with that. I 
will tell you what it was. 

After church-service the children were 
reading their Sunday-school books in the 
library, and Maggie was so interested in 
hers that she had almost forgotten there 
was such a girl in the world as Kitty Lyle, 
until she suddenly looked up from her book 
and saw Kitty reading Harper's Magazine. 

“Oh, Kitty ! ” she exclaimed, “you mustn’t 
do that!” 

“ Mustn’t do what ?” asked Kitty. 

Maggie looked at her brothers. For a 
wonder, they were lost in their books, and 
had not heard what Maggie said, for she 
had spoken in one of her loud whispers. 

When Kitty said, “Mustn’t do what?” 
she looked at Maggie in some surprise, and 
Maggie hardly knew what to say. 

“ I don’t like my library-book, Maggie — 
it’s real stupid — and I’m going to read this 
story.” 

“ But it’s Sunday, Kitty.” 

“ Papa reads Harper on Sunday.” 

“ Does he ?” 

“ Why, yes ; he says it’s better than half 


118 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


the Sunday-school books and Kitty bent 
down ever her story as much as to say, “ Go 
away, and don’t bother me.” 

Maggie did not know what more to say. 
She stood for a moment thinking. Kitty 
kept her eyes on the magazine. Stephen 
and Charlie went on reading; Maggie was 
glad they had not noticed what had been 
said. “ I’ll go ask father,” she said to her- 
self, and, quietly leaving the room, she sought 
her father. Josie and father were sitting in 
the parlor reading, and mother was in her 
own room. 

“ Father, should Kitty read Harper’s 
Magazine on Sunday?” exclaimed Maggie 
as soon as she found her father. 

“ I cannot help it, Maggie ; she is not my 
child.” 

“ Why, father, won’t you stop her ?” 

“ No, Maggie ; I do not feel that I have 
the right to do that.” 

“ Father,” said Maggie timidly, “ doesn’t 
it say, ‘ and the stranger that is within thy 
gates ’ ?” 

Mr. Arnold laid down his book and took 
Maggie on his knee. “I believe you are 


KITTY LYLE’S VISIT. 


119 


right there,” he said, “What shall we do 
about it?” 

“ You go tell her to stop, father.” 

“ It seems to me it would be better for you 
to do it, Maggie. Suppose you tell her you 
think it is wrong?” 

“ I did, father ; at least I meant to. 
But she don’t know any better.” 

“ Don’t know any better ?” 

“ No , her father does it, and he says it’s 
as good as Sunday-school books.” 

Mr. Arnold did not say anything to this. 
He hardly knew what to do. If Maggie had 
not been so earnest about it he would have 
dismissed the subject with the thought that 
Kitty was not his child, and that it would 
never do to tell her that what her father 
did was wrong ; for Mr. Lyle was a deacon 
in the church. 

“ Go ask her to read her library-book, 
Maggie,” he said at length. 

“ She says it’s stupid.” 

“ It will not do, Maggie, to ask her to put 
down the Harper unless you can give her 
something better to do or to read. Have 
you an interesting book?” 


120 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“ Oh yes, father ; .it’s splendid !” 

“ Couldn’t you let her have that?” 

“ I haven’t got more than half through 
yet,” said Maggie. 

No more was said. Father took up his 
book again, and Maggie, seeing him begin 
to read, went away disappointed and per- 
plexed. It was a rare thing to have her 
father fail to help her. Maggie did not 
know what to do. Slowly she walked 
back to the library. 

Meanwhile, Stephen, roused by Maggie’s 
leaving the room, looked up from his book 
and said, “ What’s Maggie talking about, 
Kitty ?” 

“She doesn’t want me to read Harper’s , 
because it’s Sunday.” 

“ Mag’s awful strict about keeping Sun- 
day,” said Charlie ; “ I wish she wasn’t. 
She’s gone to father to get primed. — You 
watch what she’ll say, Stephen.” 

Kitty looked uneasy. She tried again to 
read, but she could not think much about 
what she was reading. When Maggie came 
back they all looked up at her, and Charlie 
said, “Well, what did father say?” 


KITTY LYLE'S VISIT. 


,121 


Maggie did not want to answer this ques- 
tion. Fortunately for her, Josie had follow- 
ed from the parlor. Josie had a little curi- 
osity to know how this affair was going to be 
settled, and, besides this, she thought perhaps 
she could help Maggie. Going up to Kitty, 
she said, “ You don’t read such books on 
Sundays, do you?” 

“ I haven’t anything else nice,” answered 
Kitty, half sullenly. 

“ I guess Maggie ’ll find you something,” 
said Josie pleasantly. 

Maggie hesitated. There lay her interest- 
ing book. She only hesitated a moment, and 
then, seizing it, she laid it in Kitty’s lap, sa}^- 
ing, “ Read that, Kitty ; it’s splendid.” 

“ Oh, I’d like to, but you haven’t finished 
it.” 

“ No matter, you can have it and Mag- 
gie hurried out of the room before Kitty 
could say another word. 

The whole thing was done in less time 
than it takes me to tell it, and Josie turned 
to the bookcase, pretending to be looking for 
a book. The boys and Kitty were soon ab- 
sorbed in their reading, and Josie, with a 


122 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

book in her hand that she did not want, 
left the room to offer her library-book to 
Maggie. She went back to the parlor, but 
could not find her little sister there. 

Father looked up as she entered. He 
could not get interested in his book, for 
Maggie had turned his thoughts in an- 
other direction : “ Well, how did it end, 
Josie ?” 

“ Maggie gave up her book, father.” 

“Did she?” 

“ I think I’ll give her mine ; it’s too sim- 
ple for me.” 

“Yes, do, Josie.” 

Josie left the room again, book in hand. 
Mr. Arnold sat thinking. He did not read 
any more that afternoon, but soon went to 
his desk, where he wrote rapidly until tea- 
time. 

When the Catechism - hour came, Mr. 
Arnold asked Kitty Lyle the fourth com- 
mandment. She hesitated and blushed deep- 
ly. Perhaps she did not know it, or was 
she thinking about Harper's Magazine f 
Whatever may have been the matter, she 
could not answer, and Mr. Arnold, smiling, 


KITTY LYLE’S VISIT. 


123 


said, “ Perhaps that is too long a command- 
ment to ask a little visitor to repeat. — You 
say it, Josie.” 

And Josie slowly repeated, “ 4 The fourth 
commandment is, Remember the Sabbath 
day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work ; but the seventh 
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God : 
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor 
thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, 
nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy 
stranger that is within thy gates : for in six 
days the Lord made heaven and earth, the 
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the 
seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed 
the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.’ ” 

When she had finished Mr. Arnold said. 
“ Was the Sabbath law made only for Old 
Testament times, Josie ?” 

Josie replied she did not know exactly. 

“ Why do you not know exactly, Josie ?” 
“Because, father, people do not keep it 
very carefully now ; and I heard — ” 

She stopped short, and the color came into 
her face, and she looked as red as Kitty did 
when she could not repeat the command- 


124 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY . 


ment. The truth was, Josie was going to 
say, “ I heard Mr. Lyle say it was only for 
Old Testament times, and we need not be so 
strict now.” But she suddenly remembered 
Kitty, and stopped in time. 

Her father, after looking at her an instant, 
said, “ We will see what our Catechism says 
about it. — Stephen, 4 What is required in the 
fourth commandment ? ’ 99 

Stephen answered, 44 ‘The fourth command- 
ment requireth the keeping holy to God such 
set times as he hath appointed in his word, 
expressly one whole day in seven, to be a 
holy Sabbath to himself.’ ” 

Turning to Josie, Mr. Arnold asked, 
44 4 Which day of the seven hath God ap- 
pointed to be the weekly Sabbath ?’ ” 

She answered, 44 4 From the beginning of 
the world to the resurrection of Christ, God 
appointed the seventh day of the week to be 
the weekly Sabbath, and the first day of the 
week ever since to continue to the end of the 
world, which is the Christian Sabbath.’ ” 

44 1 know what that means,” said Charlie. 
44 The Jews used to keep the seventh day of 
the week, and they keep on doing it.” 


KITTY LYLE’S VISIT. 


125 


“ Yes,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“They do not believe in Christ, you 
know. Our Sabbath marks the day of 
Christ’s resurrection.” 

“ * How is the Sabbath to be sanctified ?” 
was the next question ; Mr. Arnold asked it 
without looking at any one. 

Maggie said, “ I know that ; shall I say 
it?” 

Her father nodded, and she repeated : 
“ ‘ The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a 
holy resting all that day, even from such 
worldly employments and recreations as are 
lawful on other days, and spending the whole 
time in the public and private exercises of 
God’s worship, except so much as is to be 
taken up in the works of necessity and 
mercy.’ ” 

Maggie drew a long breath — it was very 
like a sigh — as she finished, and her father 
said, “What’s the matter, Maggie?” 

“ Oh, it’s pretty long. But that isn’t all.” 

“What isn’t all?” 

“ I mean, I don't know what we ought to 
do on Sundays. I wish you’d say just what 
we must do, and what we mustn’t.” 


126 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“Yes,” said Josie, “that would make it 
easier, father.” 

“ But, children, that is not God’s way.” 

“What is not God’s way?” asked Josie 
with a puzzled look. 

“ Have you any chapter or verse in the 
Bible that tells you just how to spend every 
hour of the holy day ?” 

“ No, father,” Josie answered ; “ I wish 
there was.” 

“ Why is there not, do you suppose, 
Josie ?” 

She made no answer, but sat thinking. 

“ Stephen, can you tell ?” 

“No, father, unless — Why, father, the 
same rule wouldn’t do for everybody, would 
it ?” 

“ No ; neither would the same rule do for 
all times,” Mr. Arnold answered. “ The 
Lord has done something better than fill 
up the Bible with dry rules.” 

“ What has he done, father ?” asked 
Stephen. 

“He has given us principles of action,” 
answered Mr. Arnold. 

“I don’t understand you, father.” 


KITTY LYLE'S VISIT. 


127 


“ Rules for Sabbath-keeping would form 
only a small part of the rules we would re- 
quire if that was God’s way of leading us,” 
said Mr. Arnold. “We would need rules 
about eating and drinking, amusements, 
dancing and a host of other matters. 
Now, instead of rules, God gives us prin- 
ciples. We are told, ‘Whether therefore 
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
all to the glory of God.’” 

“ I don’t see how we can glorify God by 
amusements,” said Josie. 

“ What other name do we give amuse- 
ments?” asked her mother. 

Josie could not think, and Stephen guess- 
ed “ Recreations.” 

“ Yes, and what does the word mean ?” 

“ Recreate ,” said Stephen — “ to create 
again.” 

“Yes,” answered his mother, “to give 
fresh life and spirit. The true kind of 
recreation or amusement sends us back to 
our work fresh and ready to work better, 
and so helps us to glorify God.” 

This idea was new to Stephen and Josie. 
The others did not care anything about it, 


128 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


and Maggie said, “ But what does the Bible 
say about Sunday ?” 

Slowly Mr. Arnold repeated these beauti- 
ful verses : “ ‘ If thou turn away thy foot 
from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure 
on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a 
delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable : 
and slialt honor him, not doing thine own 
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
speaking thine own words : then shalt thou 
delight thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause 
thee to ride upon the high places of the 
earth, and feed thee with the heritage of 
Jacob thy father : for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it.’ That is an Old- 
Testament promise,” he said. 

“But it is beautiful, father. Isn’t it for 
us ?” asked Josie. 

“ I was thinking,” Mr. Arnold replied, 
“ about the worldly blessings God in this 
verse promises his people. He used to re- 
ward the Jews with earthly things. We see 
this more in their history, I think, than we 
do in ours.” 

But Maggie and Charlie thought the con- 
versation was a little dull, and Maggie want- 


KITTY LYLE’S VISIT. 


129 


ed her father to say something that would 
show Kitty that she was wrong in reading 
the Harper ; so she said, “Then can’t you 
tell us just what to do on Sundays, father?” 

“ You are not to do your own pleasure, 
Maggie, nor speak your own words, nor 
think your own thoughts.” 

Maggie began to look a little frightened. 
“ How can I help what I think ?” she in- 
quired. 

“ You cannot altogether, Maggie, but you 
must try. You must — yes, we all must — try 
to talk less less about our own concerns and 
plans, and more about the things of Christ.” 

“ One thing,” said Mrs. Arnold, “ I have 
often noticed : if one happens to begin a 
song not sacred, we stop it quickly, but we 
do not hesitate to speak of things not sa- 
cred.” 

u Well,” said Charlie, drawing a long 
sigh, “if you are going to be any more 
strict about Sunday, I’ll give up.” 

“ But I am not going to be,” answered 
his father. “The Lord is not a hard task- 
master. He wishes a service of love, and I 
will only pray that you may love him more, 


130 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


and then you will, almost without trying, 
keep the Sabbath in a way that will please 
him.” 

“We are to spend the whole time in God’s 
worship,” said mother, “ except so much as is 
to be taken up in the works of necessity and 
mercy. Some housework is necessary.” 

“ We must eat,” said Josie. 

“ Yes, and prepare food,” said mother. 
“ And we must take care of children and 
sick people; these are works of necessity 
and mercy.” 

“ What’s taking a nap?” asked Charlie. 

“ I call that mercy to our tired minds and 
bodies,” said father. 

“And it is a work of necessity, too, for 
me,” said mother, “ for if I do not get one 
I cannot enjoy the afternoon service.” 

“ Father, I don’t see how we can eat to the 
glory of God. You said, ‘ Whether we eat 
or drink, or whatsoever we do,’ didn’t you ?” 
asked Charlie. 

“ Yes.” 

“ How can we ?” 

“Is not our food given us to make us 
strong, to make us grow?’’ 


KITTY LYLE'S VISIT. 


131 


“ Yes, sir, I suppose so.” 

“ Suppose, then, we eat too much and 
make ourselves sick, then we fail to carry 
out God’s design in feeding us. The Lord 
wants us to have sound bodies, and — ” 

Here a great sigh from Maggie led her 
father to stop suddenly and look at her: 
“Well, Maggie, what is it?” 

“ I think this is the dullest Catechism we 
have had yet, and I wanted it to be the 
best.” 

They all understood that Maggie wanted 
it to be the best on Kitty’s account. Her 
father said, “ We will hurry, Maggie, and 
ask two more questions, and I will read you 
a story.” 

Mr. Arnold asked Josie, “ ‘ What is for- 
bidden in the fourth commandment ?’ ” and 
she answered, “‘The fourth commandment 
forbiddeth the omission or careless perform- 
ance of the duties required, and the pro- 
faning the day by idleness, or doing that 
which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary 
thoughts, words, or works about our worldly 
employments or recreations.’ ” 

“ ‘ Omission or careless performance ’ of 


132 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

duties,” said Mr. Arnold, “ means not doing 
them at all, or doing them carelessly, as if 
you did not love to do them.” — Then turn- 
ing to Maggie, he said, “ Don't you see, Mag- 
gie, this tells us we must not idle away the 
day, nor must we think too much about our 
work or play?” 

“ Yes, sir,” she said. 

“ 4 What are the reasons annexed to the 
fourth commandment ?’ ” asked Mr. Arnold. 

And Stephen answered, “ 4 The reasons 
annexed to the fourth commandment are, 
God’s allowing us six days of the week for 
our own employments, his challenging a 
special propriety in the seventh, his own ex- 
ample, and his blessing the Sabbath day/ ” 

Seeing the younger children were tired, 
Mr. Arnold only stopped to explain that 
God certainly had a right to one day after 
giving us six for ourselves ; his challenging 
a special propriety in the seventh simply 
meant demanding as his right this one day ; 
his resting from his work of creation was 
not because he was tired, but to set us an 
example; and his especial blessing rested 
upon those who kept well the holy day. 


KITTY LYLE'S VISIT. 


133 


And then, after singing for some time, Mr. 
Arnold read them a story, which you will 
find in the next chapter. And Maggie did 
not know till it was finished that father 
wrote it himself that very Sabbath after- 
noon. 


12 


CHAPTER X. 

MR. ARNOLD’S STORY. 

I N a beautiful country far away stood a 
fine, large mansion. It was surrounded 
by a garden in which fairest flowers bloomed 
and finest fruit grew in great abundance. 

Groups of merry children played in this 
garden — some swinging, others rolling hoops ; 
some sitting by the fountains watching and 
feeding the fish, others picking flowers and 
weaving garlands. 

In and out of the fine house, and up and 
down through the beautiful garden, the 
children ran and played with perfect free- 
dom. 

“ Whose place is this ?” we asked, “ and 
is the owner not afraid the children will 
injure the flowers and trample down the 
grass ?” 

“ Oh no,” was the reply. “ This place 

134 


MR. ARNOLD’S STORY. 


135 


was prepared expressly for the children, and 
the only wish of the owner is that they shall 
enjoy it.” 

“ And who is the owner ?” 

“ The house was built and the grounds 
were laid out by a rich gentleman who loves 
children. Their welfare has been his first 
and last thought in all his arrangements 
here. True, he has made rules which some 
of the children find hard to keep. But 
even these rules, about which they com- 
plain, are made simply for their good.” 

“ Complain ? Is it possible that any of 
these favored children complain ? I should 
think they would be happy all the day long.” 

My informant smiled rather sadly at this, 
and said, “You would think so. And 
some of the children are very happy and 
grateful. You should see them when their 
kind Friend comes to walk with them in the 
garden. They run to meet him, crowd 
around him, gather the sweetest flowers to 
press into his hands, and in every way pos- 
sible show their love for him.” 

“These, I am sure, are the children who 
keep the laws of the garden.” 


136 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“Yes, they do; at least they try to. 
Sometimes they are led astray by others, 
but they always seem very sorry when they 
break the laws. I have heard them confess 
this to the owner of the garden, and have 
seen him comfort them and wipe away their 
tears.” 

“ He must be very kind,” I said. 

“ He is the greatest lover of children I 
have ever known,” said our garden-guide. 
“ He loves every one, for his nature and his 
name is Love.” 

“And will you tell me what are these 
rules which some find so hard to keep ?” 

“ Not wishing to have the children grow 
up in ignorance, as they would if they play- 
ed in the garden all the time, their kind 
Friend has made it a rule that one day of 
every seven shall be spent in study.” 

“ Surely they cannot find fault with that ! 
And what do they study?” 

“Their Friend has prepared for them a 
wonderful book. I have never seen a text- 
book in any of the schools that will compare 
with it. He employed a great many dif- 
ferent persons to prepare it, and many, many 


MR. ARNOLD'S STORY. 


137 


years were spent in its preparation. I do 
not mean to say that the writers were con- 
stantly employed during all these years, but 
between writing the first and last pages a 
period of many years elapsed.” 

“ I should like to see this wonderful 
book.” 

“ You shall see it when you go into the 
house,” he replied. 

“ I should think one day in seven too 
little time to give to this book.” 

“ Oh, they do read it at other times ; their 
Friend wants them to read it every day. 
But on the special day more attention is 
paid to it. A copy is given to every child 
to keep in his or her own room, and a beau- 
tiful large copy is placed in the chapel to 
be used on the seventh day, when a teacher 
comes to make its meaning plain.” 

“ And what does the book teach ?” 

“ It relates wonderful stories about men 
and women who lived long ago : it tells of 
battles fought and victories won ; it gives 
the history of a remarkable person, most 
wonderful of all those whose lives are re- 
corded. This person wrought mighty won- 


138 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ders among the people. It also describes 
the beautiful place this Friend has prepared 
for the children, and explains the way to 
get there.” 

“ Another place ! and more beautiful than 
this ! How can it be ?” 

“ It is ; there is no doubt about it. You 
would think so if you could read the descrip- 
tions. And the half is not told, nor can it 
be.” 

“ And this book tells how to get there ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ I would like to hear it.” 

“ Come to-morrow and you shall.” 

Next morning, when the bright sun arose, 
I hastened to the garden-gate. Over it 
hung a large blue banner on which, in let- 
ters of gold, was written, 

“ This is the day which the Lord hath made : 

WE WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT.” 

There was just enough breeze to move the 
banner with gentle motion, and, the sun’s 
rays, falling upon the golden letters, made it 
a thing of beauty which I could not help 
stopping to admire. Entering through the 


MR. ARNOLD'S STORY. 


139 


open gateway, I walked slowly up the central 
path toward the house. As I looked around 
I saw other banners waving in the breeze, 
and these were some of the inscriptions I 
read upon them : 

“It is a good thing to give thanks unto the 
Lord; 

AND TO SING PRAISES UNTO THY NAME, O MOST 

High.” 

“Oh come, let us sing unto the Lord: 

LET US MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE TO THE ROCK OF 
OUR SALVATION.” 

“Oh give thanks unto the Lord; for he is 

GOOD.” 

As I had not seen these banners the day 
before, I concluded they were only hung out 
on the seventh days. I walked up to the 
house and went around it, but saw and heard 
no one ; in my eagerness to know and hear 
all, I had come too early. So I turned into 
one of the narrow, shady paths, and slowly 
wandered on. 

I had not walked far before I saw a child 
dressed in white sitting under one of the 
trees. She was reading, but she looked up 
as I drew near and bade me “Good-morning.” 


140 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


It was indeed a “ good morning,” for it 
seemed to me the sun never shone brighter, 
the air never was clearer, and the garden 
looked even fairer than it did the day be- 
fore. 

Pleased with the sweet face of the child 
and her pleasant manner, I sat down beside 
her, and the following conversation took 
place : 

“How is it that you are out here all 
alone ? Where are the other children ?” 

“ Oh, I am not the only one out. Lu and 
Vic” — and she mentioned several other 
names — “are here somewhere; but,” she 
lowered her voice to a whisper, “ we never 
go together at this hour.” 

“ Why not ?” I said, as low as the child. 

“ Because our Friend sometimes walks in 
the garden as early as this.” 

“ Well ?” 

“ And if he finds one of us alone he sits 
down beside us, just as you are doing now, 
and he speaks to us such sweet, loving 
words.” 

“ And you love to have him talk with 
you ?” 


MR. ARNOLD’S STORY. 


141 


“ Oh yes.” 

“ And are you not a bit afraid of him ?” 

“ Afraid of him ! why ?” 

I could not answer, so I asked another 
question : “ Why are not all the children 
here ?” 

“ It is not yet time for them to get up.” 

“ At what time must they rise ?” 

“ On every other day the bell rings at six 
o’clock,” she answered, “ but on this day no 
bell is rung until our teacher comes to ex- 
plain the book.” 

“ What ! are they allowed to sleep on this 
day as long as they like ?” 

“ Our Friend did not set any hour for ris- 
ing,” the child answered. “But they all 
know that if they sleep late they miss his 
visit in the garden.” 

“ And you do not like to miss that ?” 

“ No,” she answered very softly. 

“ You love him ?” I said. 

“ How can I help it ?” 

“ He has given you a beautiful place to 
live in.” 

“ Yes ; and, do you know, he has prepared 
a better place even than this?” 


142 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“ Can it be ?” 

“Yes, it is true. Maybe you will bear 
our teacher tell about it if you stay.” 

“ I will stay,” I said. 

“ Have you lived here long ?” I asked 
after a moment’s silence. 

She looked quietly into my eyes while 
tears gathered in her own. “ No, not very 
long,” she said. “I was once very poor 
and dirty, and very miserable and unhappy. 
He sought and found me, and brought me 
here.” 

“ And will you never have to go back to 
your poor home?” 

“ Oh no. That is the best thing about it. 
He promised always to keep me here till 
he takes me to that better place. Isn’t he 
good ?” 

As I sat beside the lovely child, thinking 
about what she said, we heard a slight rust- 
ling of the leaves, and she exclaimed, “ Here 
he comes now !” 

Though I could see no one, I rose quickly 
and walked away, for had she not told me 
how she liked to see this Friend all alone? 

Walking back toward the house, I met my 


MR ARNOLD'S STORY. 


143 


guide of the day before, who, after greeting 
me, asked if I would not like to go through 
the house and see what the children were 
doing. I was very glad to do this; so he 
clothed me in an invisible cloak, and put one 
over his own shoulders. “ Now,” he said, 
“we can go through all the house and no 
one can see us. Here, put these on your 
feet, and no one will hear you.” 

Then he led the way noiselessly, and I 
followed. 

As we went into the main hall we met 
several children coming out. I could not 
help noticing how clean and happy they 
appeared. 

“We always put clean garments in their 
rooms on the morning of these days, for 
their Friend likes them to be clean.” 

“ But you do not compel them to wear 
them ?” 

“ Oh no. They generally like to do it. 
Some, however, put on those they have worn 
all the week. These are best punished by 
making them sit beside the cleanest and 
freshest children. But we never say any- 
thing to them about it.” 


144 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


We ascended the stairs and walked toward 
the bedrooms. Curtains instead of walls and 
doors divided the rooms. Softly drawing- 
aside a curtain, I saw a child sleeping 
soundly. As we stood looking at him a 
little boy came up to the bedside and gen- 
tly pushing him said, “Come, Lynn, wake 
up; come into the garden.” 

But the child did not stir. A harder 
push and a louder call, and then he woke 
and said angrily, “Go away!” 

“ Lynn, don’t go to sleep again ; you’ll 
miss our Friend.” 

But the boy pushed away the arm of 
the other, and turned over on his bed. To 
all further entreaties he made no reply, 
and the boy soon left him to his slumbers. 

In the next room we saw a child upon 
his knees in prayer. When he rose he hur- 
ried out of the room, and we heard him sing- 
ing as he went into the garden. 

Beside another bed we saw a little girl 
sitting, and in the bed lay a boy who seemed 
to be sick. 

“ Don’t stay by me, Lillie ; you’ll miss see- 
ing our Friend. Go into the garden.” 


MR. ARNOLD'S STORY. 


145 


<£ No, Carl ; I could stay all day now.” 

“Why?” he asked, looking intently at 
her. 

“ He has been here. While you were 
dozing he came in softly and kissed me.” 

“ And what did he say ?” asked Carl with 
surprise. 

“ He told me to stay by you all day if you 
needed me, Carl, and he would come and 
make us many calls to-day.” 

The boy smiled and said no more. Just 
then three children came in, and one said, 
“ Come, we are going out on the lake for a 
sail.” Another said quickly, “We’ll be 
home before any one finds it out.” And 
the third said, “ You know we’ll all be in 
time for the teacher when he comes.” 

But the little girl shook her head, and, 
pointing to her sick brother, said, “ Carl is 
sick, and I don’t want to leave him. Be- 
sides, you know our Friend would not like 
it.” 

They urged, but she was firm, and they 
soon left her. 

We looked into many rooms, and found 
some dressing, others praying, and some of 
10 


146 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


the rooms were empty, the children having 
already gone into the garden. But the 
greater part of the children were sleeping 
soundly. 

When the hour came for them to meet in 
the chapel I looked for the faces I had seen. 
Among the first I saw was the child who 
talked with me in the garden. She was 
sitting with several others who, like her, 
looked very happy. They did not laugh 
or talk, but a smile rested on each face, and 
I felt sure the Friend had been talking with 
them in the garden. When the teacher be- 
gan they listened to his words, which were 
simple enough for the youngest child to un- 
derstand. 

Carl and Lillie were not there, but I was 
sure their Friend would visit them, and make 
many things plain and precious to them, so 
that they should lose nothing, though they 
could not hear the teacher to-day. 

When the service was half over a little 
party came straggling in. Their clothes 
were soiled, their hair disarranged and their 
hands and faces dirty. They looked ashamed 
and blushed as they walked to their places. 


MR. ARNOLD'S STORY. 


147 


Among them I recognized the three children 
who had tried to persuade Lillie to go on the 
lake with them. They did not pay much 
attention to what the teacher was saying, but 
sat whispering among themselves and gazing 
around the room. 

The teacher read out of the large book 
about the beautiful place prepared for the 
children. “Your Friend,” he said, as he 
closed the book, “ has shown great love for 
you all in preparing a place like this. In 
return he asks you to show your love for him 
by keeping his laws. You know the rules 
of the place. 

“ You are not to quarrel with each other, 
nor to speak evil one of another, but ever to 
be at peace among yourselves. You are to 
try to love each other as he has loved you. 
And you are to love him more and more, 
because he is so good and because he has so 
loved you. You are to keep his day careful- 
ly, and study his book prayerfully, and sing 
his praises joyfully, for this pleases him well.” 

“In keeping his day well you will be made 
ready for the beautiful place he has promised 
you. If you love him it will be easy to do 


148 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

all this. Some of you, I know, think it hard 
that on this one day in seven he has forbidden 
playing.” 

At this those who had been upon the lake 
pouted and looked sullen. 

“ But I ask you honestly to tell me if you 
do not think your Friend has a right to re- 
quire this of you, when he allows you six 
days for play?” 

And some of the children clearly and joy- 
fully answered, “ Yes.” 

“‘And tell me if this rule is not made for 
your own good?” 

Again they answered, “ Yes.” 

“ Are not all the laws made for your 
good ?” 

And the same children answered, “ Yes.” 

“Will you keep them?” 

“We will try,” they answered. And 
then they sweetly chanted, “ Let thy hand 
help me : for I have chosen thy command- 
ments : help me, O Lord.” 

Again opening the book, their teacher 
read : “ Ye are my friends, if ye do what- 
soever I command you.” “ For this is the 
love of God, that we keep his command- 


MR. ARNOLD'S STORY. 


149 


ments ; and his commandments are not 
grievous.” 

The children were then dismissed, and 
were soon walking down the garden-path, 
singing and talking as they went. Some 
went into quiet places, where they sat down 
and read, while others kept in groups and 
sang or talked together. They were free to 
roam in any part of the garden ; the only 
things forbidden were the games and sports 
of other days and all noisy jesting and 
laughing. 

I watched them all day with great interest, 
and when the sun went down I came away 
from the garden feeling that the happiest 
children were those who kept the laws and 
tried to please their Friend. 

As I came away I noticed a banner I had 
not seen before, and thus read its bright 
letters : 

“ Blessed are they that do his command- 
ments, 

THAT THEY MAY HAVE RIGHT TO THE TREE OF 
LIFE, 

AND MAY ENTER IN THROUGH THE GATES INTO THE 
CITY.” 


150 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Maggie was delighted with her father’s 
story, and could not help expressing her 
surprise that he could “ make up such a 
good one.” 

“ I thought you supposed father could 
do anything he tried?” remarked Charlie. 

“ Well, he can,” answered Maggie, “ but 
I never expected him to make up stories.” 

“ I like it better than the Catechism,” said 
Kitty aside to Charlie. 

“ So do I, Kit ; but you’d better not say 
so to father, because he thinks the Cate- 
chism is the greatest thing out, after the 
Bible.” 

Mrs. Arnold said it was bedtime for Char- 
lie, Maggie and Kitty, and they left the 
room, while the others took up their books 
and spent the rest of the evening quietly 
reading. 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 

“ Pi OOD news !” exclaimed Maggie one 

^ evening, bounding in before her fa- 
ther ; “ the steamer is in, and Eddie’s 
come !” 

“ With father ?” asked Charlie, throwing 
down his slate and arithmetic. — “ Where is 
he, father?” he inquired as his father fol- 
lowed Maggie into the room. 

“Eddie and Mrs. Snowden will not be 
here with us till to-morrow at tea-time. 
But the steamer is in.” 

“We must study in the afternoon,” said 
Josie. 

“ So we can hear all their stories about 
China,” said Maggie. 

“ Eddie will know so much about it !” said 
Stephen, winking at Josie. 

“ Well, he ought to know something,” said 

151 


152 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Maggie; “and I mean to find out all he 
does know.” 

“ No doubt of your doing that, Maggie,” 
her father remarked pleasantly. 

“ He may be very strange and homesick 
at first,” said Mrs. Arnold, “ and you must 
not be surprised if he cries.” 

“ We mustn’t call him a ‘ cry-baby,’ ” said 
Maggie. 

“ I think he’d hate to come away,” said 
Charlie. 

“ Why ?” asked father. 

“ Oh, it must be so very queer to live with 
heathens ; they do such funny things,” Char- 
lie said. 

“ I hope you will go some day,” said 
Grandmother Morris, “ and tell them 
about Jesus.” 

Charlie made no reply. 

“ I’ll go, grandma,” said Maggie ; “ only 
don’t ask me to go to India, for I’m afraid 
of snakes and all those horrid things.” 

“ Wouldn’t Mag squeal to find one in her 
bed?” said Charlie. 

“ How would you like it ?” inquired 
Maggie. 


THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 153 

“ I’d kill it,” replied Charlie with the air 
of a brave general. 

“ Maybe it ’would kill you,” remarked 
■Stephen. 

“‘He shall give his angels charge over 
thee to keep thee,’ ” quietly remarked 
grandmother. 

The next evening tea was delayed an hour, 
and then Mr. Arnold came, bringing Mrs. 
Snowden and Eddie. 

The children were surprised to see Eddie 
dressed in a new, fashionable suit. 

“ Why, he isn’t a bit Chinese !” whispered 
Maggie to Josie. “ I hope he has Chinese 
things in his trunk.” 

They waited to hear what language he 
would speak, but he clung to Mrs. Snowden 
and said not a word until Mr. Arnold asked 
the blessing at the table, when he sobbed out 
“ Papa !” and hid his face on Mrs. Snowden’s 
shoulder. 

This brought tears to every eye, and Mag- 
gie ran out into the entry to wipe away the 
tears she did not want any one to see. But 
Maggie need not have been ashamed of her 
tears; her father was not ashamed of his, for 


154 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


he did not go into the entry to wipe them off. 
No ; he looked at Eddie and said, “ Call me 
6 papa ’ now ?” 

“ No ! no !” said Eddie — “ my papa.” 

Mrs. Arnold could not speak. 

“ My papa prays too,” said Eddie. 

They all had such hard work to keep 
from crying that they could not say any- 
thing to comfort the little boy. 

At last Mr. Arnold said, “ Look at me, 
Eddie ; I want to tell you something.” 

But all was of no avail ; the little fellow 
was not able to understand that all of these 
strange people were his friends, so that Mrs. 
Snowden had to take him out of the room to 
quiet him. 

Maggie met them in the entry, where she 
was wiping the tears that would not stop 
coming. She led them to her play-room, 
where the little boy at last grew interested 
in the strange playthings, and Mrs. Snowden 
slipped away, leaving them alone. 

After Charlie finished his tea he went into 
the play-room, and soon Eddie was heard 
laughing merrily. 

“ Leave the children alone, and they 


THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 155 

will do better than we can,” said Mr. Ar- 
nold. 

Mrs. Snowden then told them how hard it 
had been to persuade Eddie’s father to part 
with his little boy. The other missionaries 
could see that he was getting spoiled, and 
that after Mrs. Snowden came away there 
would be no lady in the mission-home to 
look after him. His father saw the trouble, 
but it was hard to get his consent. The 
separation was very sorrowful. 

“ His nurse,” said Mrs. Snowden, “ was a 
miserable liar, and taught him many evil 
things. But ” she added, laughing, “ as all 
his bad words are in Chinese, it won’t hurt 
your children ; they cannot understand 
them. All the good he knows is in Eng- 
lish, and the bad in Chinese.” 

Josie and Stephen laughed at this, but 
their mother looked troubled. She was be- 
ginning to be anxious. 

“He will be a great care, Mrs. Arnold,” 
said Mrs. Snowden in answer to her look ; 
“ but he is a bright child, and will well repay 
all your trouble if God spares his life. I 
was with his mother when she died, and I 


156 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


wish you could have heard her prayers. 
Surely those prayers will be answered.” 

“ No doubt of it,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ I am glad to take him,” said Mrs. Ar- 
nold ; “ only I am sometimes afraid I may 
not do the very best that can be done for 
him. I know Edward desires great things 
for him.” 

“ 4 He will fulfill the desire of them that 
fear him/ ” said grandmother, who always 
had a text ready. “ And my Edward was a 
good boy, always.” 

After tea Mrs. Snowden went to the play- 
room with some food for Eddie, and after he 
had eaten it she took him to bed, for the 
little boy was very tired. Maggie and Char- 
lie went with Mrs. Snowden, and heard their 
little cousin pray a prayer in Chinese, and 
then a prayer in English. 

No one else saw him again that night, and 
the little curly head was very soon resting 
on the pillow. Mrs. Snowden sat beside 
him and sang a Chinese lullaby song in a 
low sweet voice, and in a few moments the 
large black eyes closed, and Eddie slept 
soundly. 


THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 157 

“Oh, mother/’ Charlie said, “you ought 
to hear him pray Chinese !” 

“ I forgot his prayer when I said he did 
not know anything good in Chinese. His 
mother taught him that,” said Mrs. Snowden. 

“She didn’t bind up his feet, did she, 
ma’am?” asked Maggie. 

“ No, dear,” replied Mrs. Snowden ; “ they 
don’t bind boys’ feet.” 

“ I didn’t know the boys dressed like us,” 
said Charlie. 

“ They don’t, Charlie ; but Mr. Morris 
asked me to get a pretty suit for Eddie, so 
that he could appear well before his relations,” 
said Mrs. Snowden. 

Maggie thought he did not appear very 
well when he cried and screamed so loud, 
but she was too polite to say so. Besides, 
I think she was very sorry for her little cous- 
in, though she did think America must be a 
nicer place to live in. She ventured to tell 
Mrs. Snowden that she thought it must be 
nicer to live in America than in China, and 
Mrs. Snowden said she thought it was ; at the 
same time she hoped soon to be well enough 
to return to China. 


158 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“ Which of these children are going to 
China?” she asked, looking round upon 
them all. 

No one answered. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold 
seldom answered questions put to their chil- 
dren ; they left it to the children to answer 
for themselves. 

After a pause Maggie said, “ I’ll go, I 
think ; and maybe Charlie’ll go too.” 

“ I want to take a voyage round the world 
first,” said Charlie. “ Maybe after that I’ll 
settle down in China.” 

Then Mrs. Snowden told them a great 
many stories about her life in China; and 
the children sat up an hour later that night, 
and talked for some time after they were in 
bed, for the doors were open, and they could 
talk to each other very easily from their beds. 

“ Mag, I’m going round the world, but 
don’t tell father and mother,” said Charlie. 

“ Why, Charlie ! what do you mean ? 
They won’t let you.” 

“ Don’t tell, Mag ; will you ?” 

“Of course I will, Charlie; you mustn’t 
go a step ;” and Maggie began to cry. 

Charlie got out of bed, and, coming into 


THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 159 

Maggie’s room, said, “ What a goose you are, 
Maggie! I was only fooling. Can’t you take 
a joke ?” 

“ Oh, Charlie, how you frightened me ! 
Are you sure you didn’t mean it?” 

“ Why, yes, goosie !” 

“ And you won’t go?” 

“ Not if you won’t say anything about 
it.” 

“ About what, Charlie ?” 

“ About my makin’ believe,” said Charlie 
after slight hesitation. 

“ How queer you act, Charlie !” 

Charlie made no reply. He quietly went 
back to bed, feeling guilty and uncomfort- 
able, for he had really made up his mind 
that evening that he would run away. 

But it would never do to tell Maggie ; he 
saw that in a moment. And the only way 
for him to do was to pretend he was joking. 

Maggie lay still until Charlie called out, 
“ Maggie, are you asleep?” 

“ No,” replied Maggie ; “ are you ?” 

“ No,” said Charlie, laughing. “ I 
couldn’t call you if I was asleep, could 
I?” 


160 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“Yes,” said Maggie; “some people call 
in their sleep. You haven’t any money to 
go, Charlie.” 

“ Go where ?” asked Charlie, pretending 
he did not know what Maggie meant. 

“ Go round the world, Charlie. It must 
take lots of money.” 

“ Oh yes, lots,” said Charlie. “ I say, 
Maggie, how do you like Eddie?” 

“ Not much,” replied Maggie. 

“ Nor I,” said Charlie. 

You see, Charlie wanted to change the 
subject and set Maggie’s mind on something 
else. He had asked Mrs. Snowden many 
questions about her long voyage, and she 
had told him many strange things she had 
seen. A strong desire possessed him to travel 
forth and see new countries, and I think the 
foolish little fellow wanted to be his own 
master for a while. 

“Eddie ’ll have to get a lot of whippings, I 
guess,” said Maggie, “for he has an awful 
temper. I had to let him have everything 
lie wanted in the play-room.” 

“ Mrs. Snowden got a whipping first thing 
when she went to China,” said Charlie. 


THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 


161 


“Oh, Charlie! I don’t believe it. Did 
she?” 

“ Of course she did. Ask her, if you 
can’t believe me,” said Charlie. 

“ I knew they didn’t like girl-babies,” said 
Maggie, “but I didn’t know they whipped 
missionary-women.” 

“ Don’t want to go now, do you ?” asked 
Charlie. 

“I don’t want to very much,” replied 
Maggie. “ Any way, I’ll ask Mrs. Snowden.” 

“ What place would you go to, Mag ?” ask- 
ed Charlie. 

“ Ningpo,” said Maggie. “ But I don’t like 
rice much. I’d like to see the temples.” 

“ Yes, so would I. Why couldn’t they 
make rice in breakfast-cakes, Mag? you like 
those.” 

“ I’ll get Dinah to show me how before I 

go” 

* “ Dinah’ll be dead by that time,” said 

Charlie. 

Maggie began to count the years, but be- 
fore she had settled the time of her going 
she fell asleep. That night she dreamed 
that she was on a great vessel in a storm. 

11 


162 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Eddie was there too, and she and Eddie 
climbed up to the top of a mast, where 
Eddie got angry with her and pushed her 
off into the sea. She caught hold of Josie 
by the neck and squeezed her wide awake. 

“What’s the matter?” inquired Josie in 
great alarm. 

“Oh, I’m drovmded ! I won’t go to China !” 
cried Maggie, sitting up in bed and rubbing 
her hands over the pillow to make sure she 
was not at the bottom of the sea. 

“ You needn’t go to-night,” said Josie in 
not a pleasant tone, for she did not enjoy 
being choked in her sleep ; “ and the best 
thing you can do is to go to sleep as quick 
as you can.” 

“ Will you go, Josie ?” 

“ I don’t know. I’m going to sleep now,” 
replied Josie. 

The next morning at breakfast Maggie 
asked Mrs. Snowden if she really got a' 
whipping when she went to China. 

Mrs. Snowden did not understand what 
she meant, and Charlie would not explain 
for awhile. At last he said, “Before you 
landed, Mrs. Snowden ; don’t you remember?” 


THE NEW-COMER FROM CHINA. 


163 


“ Oh, I said I was * whipped ’ from our 
vessel to the little boat,” said Mrs. Snowden, 
laughing. “ But, Maggie, that is a sailor’s 
word, and only means I was lowered in a 
chair into the little boat.” 

“ It ’most made Maggie give up going to 
China,” said Charlie. 

“Afraid of a whipping?” asked Stephen. 

“Why, Stephen, I wouldn’t like it,” answer- 
ed Maggie. 

“ Do you teach your boys and girls the 
Catechism, Mrs. Snowden?” asked Charlie. 

“ Which one ?” asked Mrs. Snowden. 

“ The ‘ What’s - the - chief - end - of- man ?’ 
Catechism,” said Charlie. 

“ No, not that one,” answered Mrs. 
Snowden. 

“ Maggie don’t like rice, Mrs. Snowden ; 
it won’t do for her to go to China,” said 
Charlie. 

“I like breakfast-cakes,” said Maggie. — 
“ Can’t they put the rice in cakes, Mrs. 
Snowden ?” 

“Yes, if they pray over it,” said Mrs. 
Snowden. 

Maggie’s mother asked what she meant, 


164 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


and slie replied : “ My servants were once 
trying to make some cakes for me, and they 
had a great deal of trouble because the cakes 
would stick to the griddle. ‘ What shall we 
do V said the cook ; ‘ Mrs. Snowden must 
have something to eat/ The other servant 
went off by himself and prayed, saying 
when he came back, ‘Mrs. Snowden said 
we must pray over everything. God can 
hear us, and maybe he will help us bake 
the cakes/ ” 

“ Did they get them baked then ?” asked 
Josie. 

“ Yes, and they were very good.” 

After a pause Mrs. Snowden said, “ Some 
time I must tell you about an expedition to 
the Snowy Valley, but I think it is too late 
now.” She looked up at the clock as she 
spoke, and Mrs. Arnold said, “ Yes, it is 
time to get ready for school.” 


CHAPTER XII. 

ABOUT MWOI LING. 

I F you could have visited the Arnold fam- 
ily during Mrs. Snowden’s sojourn you 
would have heard them talking all the time 
about China. Mrs. Snowden told them a 
great many stories in regard to her work at 
Ningpo. She also gave them several num- 
bers of a magazine to read when she was too 
busy or too tired to talk with them. 

Josie was very much interested in this 
magazine, which was called Woman’s Work 
in China , and she told Maggie several sto- 
ries she had read in it about little girls in 
the mission-schools. I will tell you one of 
these stories. 

Mwoi Ling was a little girl ten years old. 
She was brought to the mission-school at 
Foochow about thirteen years ago, very soon 

165 


166 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


after the school was established. After she 
had been there three months her mother came 
and carried her away. Her mother had been 
told that the missionaries intended taking her 
little girl away to England. 

The missionaries did not hear anything 
about Mwoi Ling for eleven years. The 
little girl *tad learned very little while at 
school, but she remembered what she had 
learned, and often wished for some one to 
tell her more, for she felt that she was a 
sinner, and she was afraid to go to sleep at 
night lest she should die before she knew 
the way of salvation. 

One day Mwoi Ling and her mother made 
their appearance at the school. The mission- 
aries did not recognize their former scholar ; 
she was now twenty- two years old. That was 
old for a Chinese girl to be unmarried. Her 
father and mother had tried to marry her, 
but Mwoi Ling resisted the wish of her pa- 
rents ; and when they found that the “ go- 
between,” as they call the matchmaker, had 
deceived them about the man their daughter 
was about to marry, they were very indig- 
nant, and his mother tried for several years 


ABOUT MW 01 LING . 


167 


to buy another girl to take Mwoi Ling’s place 
as wife. 

Mwoi Ling sometimes felt like putting an 
end to her life by taking opium, but she knew 
that she was not prepared to die. She begged 
her mother to take her back to the school. 
At first her mother refused, and took her in- 
stead to visit her relations, but the poor girl 
was so troubled that she could neither eat nor 
sleep. Fearing that her health or reason 
would give way, her mother at last con- 
sented to her coming back to school. 

Very soon Mwoi Ling forgot all her old 
troubles, and grew as light-hearted as any 
girl in school. Her face was all sunshine, 
and her voice was often heard singing the 
hymns she used to sing years ago. After 
having been in the school a month, and 
learning all she could in that time, she 
wished to join the Church, but the mis- 
sionaries advised her to wait a while. 

At the end of the month she went home. 
Afterward she paid several visits to the school, 
and seemed happy and hopeful ; but her fu- 
ture husband heard of her visits, and it made 
him fear that he was going to lose her, so he 


168 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


told her mother that he would be married in 
the seventh month. He gave notice in the 
fourth month, and soon after her mother came 
to take her home. 

It was a sorrowful parting for Mwoi Ling 
and her teachers. She promised to be faith- 
ful, whatever happened. “ If they kill me,” 
she said, “ I will not bow down to dumb 
idols.” 

Her friends at the mission heard no more 
of her until the sixth month. Then they 
heard a story about a bride who had been 
taken away by force ; and when they learn- 
ed that this bride had been one of their pu- 
pils, and that she was a Christian, they knew 
it must be Mwoi Ling. 

Some months after she again visited the 
school. Poor woman ! She had been very 
ill, and was so changed that her teachers 
scarcely recognized her. Her mother-in- 
law had been very cruel to her. When her 
own mother asked to have the doctor sent for, 
the mother-in-law replied, “No. Let her 
die, and we will throw her out on the hill 
like a dead dog.” 

Afterward, fearing the expense and trou- 


ABOUT MWOr LINO. 


169 


ble of a funeral, this cruel woman relented 
a little, and Mwoi Ling went to the doctor. 
On her way home she came to the school and 
told her sad story. She said her betrothed 
came before the time for the marriage, and 
entered her mother’s house with a number 
of rough-looking men. Two women were 
sitting with her, and as her future husband 
had never seen her, he had to ask which one 
was to be his wife. 

He seized Mwoi Ling, who fainted, and 
knew of nothing that happened until she 
found herself hurriedly borne through the 
streets in a sedan chair, guarded by these 
rough men. Her jacket was wet and torn, 
her hair hanging down, and her head-orna- 
ments, earrings, bracelets and rings, all 
gone. 

After she fainted the men and women 
fought over her, the women doing their best 
to save her. They tried to make her swallow 
some tea, but in the scuffle it was spilled 
over her jacket. Her future husband threw 
a cover over her, lifted her from the ground 
where she had fallen, and placed her in a 
sedan chair which was waiting outside. 


170 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Once she tried to get out of the sedan, but 
she was pushed back by this cruel man, and 
a cover was thrown over the sedan so that 
she could not see. After a time she felt that 
they were on a boat. The journey by boat 
lasted only half a day, but it seemed to her 
as if days passed before they landed. After 
that she was carried a long distance before 
they reached her future home. 

What a welcome she received ! The 
mother-in-law and three sisters-in-law came 
out to meet her. Fearful-looking women 
they were. They dragged her out of the 
chair. The mother -in- law said, “ I will 
teach you your duty to me while the sis- 
ters-in-law cried, “ We will have no Christian 
here.” 

Poor Mwoi Ling was led into a hovel, 
where a table was spread, candles were light- 
ed and idols were set up. She knew she 
would be ordered to bow in worship before 
these images, and she forgot herself in anger 
and pushed over the table. The basins were 
broken and the food spilled ; the idols fell to 
the floor. Of course this brought a torrent 
of abuse upon the poor bride ; and when she 


ABOUT MWOI LING. 


171 


had time to think about what she had done 
she was very sorry, for she knew her conduct 
was not Christ-like. 

From this time on she had to endure per- 
secution. Her clothing was taken away, she 
was almost starved, she was beaten and com- 
pelled to work very hard. Because she closed 
her eyes and asked a blessing over her food 
her mother-in-law slapped her face, and said 
she had many daughters-in-law, but none 
of them played such tricks as this one. 
Once her husband found her on her knees. 
He knocked her down, saying he did not 
want a Christian for a wife. 

One day Mwoi Ling overheard her hus- 
band making arrangements to sell her to 
another man. Then she ran away ; her 
mother helped her to escape. They both 
hid for a time, but her mother was caught 
and imprisoned. 

Then Mwoi Ling’s husband sent word to 
her father that the mother would not be re- 
leased until Mwoi Ling was brought back, 
or, if he liked it better, he could pay a 
large sum of money as a ransom for his 
wife. 


172 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Now, how were poor Mwoi Ling and her 
father to raise this money ? They sold their 
house or shop, and managed to pay half the 
money required. The husband then released 
the poor mother. She had suffered very 
much during her captivity. She had been 
partly stripped, and fastened to the house 
by a rope tied around her neck. She had 
also been beaten and nearly starved. 

The rest of the money was raised by Mwoi 
Ling’s relatives, and so she became free from 
her cruel husband. 

Maggie was disappointed that this story 
did not tell what Mwoi Ling did after her 
divorce. It seems her mother gave her her 
choice — to come back to school, be instructed 
and join the Church, or to marry again. 
At the time the missionary wrote she was 
too sick to come and see her teachers, and she 
lived too far from the city for them to go and 
see her ; so the missionary did not yet know 
how Mwoi Ling would decide. 

Maggie said she hoped the next number 
of the magazine would tell her that Mwoi 
Ling had come back to the mission-school. 


ABOUT MW 01 LING. 


173 


After hearing this sad story Maggie could 
not forget it. She longed to do something 
for the poor women and girls in China. She 
went to Mrs. Snowden, and they talked to- 
gether all alone in Mrs. Snowden’s room. 

Mrs. Snowden proposed that Maggie should 
form a mission-band. Maggie looked a little 
frightened at the idea of starting anything 
like a society, but after Mrs. Snowden ex- 
plained it she thought she could easily do 
it. 

The jdan was for Maggie to ask every girl 
in school to give twenty-five cents a year, and 
to ask Miss King, the teacher, to give fifty 
cents. There were over thirty girls in school ; 
that would make the subscriptions amount 
to about eight dollars. Then each of these 
girls might ask their mothers to subscribe. 

The rule was fifty cents for grown people 
and twenty-five cents for children. The 
amount raised would be sent to China to 
educate a little girl. 

Maggie’s mother was very much pleased 
with this plan. She told .Maggie she could 
invite the whole school to meet Mrs. Snow- 
den and hear her stories. Maggie was sure 


174 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


they would be interested and ready to do 
anything if only they could hear all she 
had heard. She could hardly wait until 
Monday to invite the girls. 

“This is only Friday,” she said, “and I 
must wait till Monday ! And when can I tell 
them to come, mother ?” 

“ Tuesday afternoon will be the best time, 
Maggie,” her mother replied. 

While Maggie’s mind was full of this new 
scheme, Charlie was devising something very 
different. To run away from his happy home 
seemed to the silly boy the most desirable 
thing that he could do. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

EDDIE AND HIS TEMPER. 

T HE next morning Charlie remembered 
to ask Mrs. Snowden about the Snowy 
Valley. 

“ Was it a picnic ?” be inquired. 

“ It was something like one,” she re- 
plied. 

“Do missionaries go on picnics?” asked 
Maggie, with a look of astonishment. 

“Why not?” inquired Mrs. Snowden, 
laughing. 

“ I thought they preached all the while.” 

“ The ladies, Maggie ?” 

“ Well, I thought they taught school,” said 
Maggie. 

“ They need some change and rest,” said 
Mrs. Snowden. 

“They do not take enough,” remarked 

175 


176 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

Mr. Arnold — “ not near as much as they 
need.” 

“ We find so much to do, Mr. Arnold, 
and so few to do it,” said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ But you do sometimes have picnics ?” 
said Maggie, who was anxious to hear about 
it. “ Please tell us about it.” 

Mrs. Snowden said they left Ningpo at 
night in a covered boat. Maggie thought 
that showed the missionaries were pretty 
busy, for she knew they went by night to 
save time, as papa did sometimes in travel- 
ing in America. She asked Mrs. Snowden 
if they slept all night on the boat. Mrs. 
Snowden said they did. In the morning 
they took mountain-chairs, and the porters 
carried the baggage. 

“ How stylish missionaries are !” exclaimed 
Maggie. 

“ What did you want with baggage ?” ask- 
ed Charlie. “ Were you going to stay?” 

“ There was not much baggage. Our par- 
ty was pretty large, and we had to carry our 
own provisions.” 

“ Why did you do that ?” asked Charlie. 

“ The Chinese only know how to prepare 


EDDIE AND HIS TEMPER 177 

what we Americans find most unpalatable 
food, Charlie. Besides, there are no hotels 
or nice wayside inns where we can get re- 
freshment — no railroad-station restaurants/’ 
said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ I’d like to know what you saw on the 
road ?” said Mrs. Arnold. 

“We rode for about three hours along the 
flat banks of the river, past field of beans, 
rice, wheat and cabbage. Paved ridges 
separate these fields and make a path for 
travelers. Once we crossed the river on a 
massive granite bridge. Then the valley 
began to narrow, and the river also grew 
narrower, and was only navigated by bam- 
boo rafts. By and by we got out of our 
mountain-chairs and began to climb up a 
steep, rocky path. 

“ About a thousand feet above the valley 
we had a fine view. Oh, it was beautiful ! — 
I wish you could have seen it, Mrs. Arnold. 
The valley lay below us, laid out in culti- 
vated fields of grain, dotted with scattered 
villages and divided by the river winding 
like a silver thread. Clumps of bamboo 
covered the steep slopes of the mountain, 
12 


178 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY . 


their feathery plumes of varied hue waving 
gently in the breeze.” 

Mrs. Arnold said to Maggie, “ Don’t you 
think missionaries can work better after 
climbing a mountain and seeing such a 
beautiful view?” 

Maggie thought they could. 

Charlie was impatient to find out what 
temples and idols and queer things they saw, 
and so was Stephen. But Mrs. Arnold seem- 
ed to be interested in hearing about the fine 
scenery. 

“When we were rested,” Mrs. Snowden 
continued, “ we went to the 4 Temple of the 
Snowy Crevice.’ ” 

“ What a name for a temple !” exclaimed 
Charlie. “ What was it like ?” 

44 A group of quaint gabled houses, 
Charlie, the home of bonzes and containing 
idols.” 

44 What are bonzes?” asked Charlie. 

44 Priests with shaven crowns and dresses 
of black or gray serge. They were giving 
yellow tickets for the celestial regions to 
some deluded women, who were kneeling 
before a row of gods and goddesses, the 


EDDIE AND HIS TEMPER. 


179 


largest of which, in the centre, was about 
twenty-five feet high. One priest was 
chanting in a low, monotonous tone. 
Whenever he tapped a little bell the wo- 
men prostrated themselves. These women 
were counting their beads, or telling their 
rosaries, as we call it, and burning little 
pieces of yellow paper.” 

“ Tell us if you saw anything else in the 
temple, Mrs. Snowden,” said Charlie. 

“ In one hall we saw people making bam- 
boo mats, Charlie. You know there was a 
whole range of buildings. But I must tell 
you about another beautiful view.” 

Charlie did not think it would be polite to 
object to this, though he would much rather 
have learned how they made the bamboo 
mats. 

Mrs. Snowden then told how a guide from 
the temple took them to see a priest’s little 
house overhanging a precipice like a bird’s 
nest. The view was beautiful ; the hillsides 
wooded or terraced with rice-fields ; here and 
there a mountain-torrent glistened as it tum- 
bled over the rocks. She told them how she 
clung to a pine tree beside the waterfall call- 


180 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. ^ 

ed the “ Thousand-Fathom Precipice/’ and 
looked down into the great pool below. 

Josie thought she would like to go on an 
expedition like that. 

“ It was very enjoyable/’ Mrs. Snowden 
said. “ And we all had been working hard, 
and had not had a play-time in a great while. 
That helped us to enjoy it more.” 

“No doubt of that,” said Mr. Arnold. 
“It was well you finished your breakfast 
before Charlie asked you about Snowy 
Valley, Mrs. Snowden.” 

“ And it’s well it is Saturday morning,” 
said Josie ; “ we can talk as long as we 
like.” 

“ So we can,” said Charlie. “ If there’s 
anything I hate, it is to be stopped short 
when I’m having a good time, and have 
somebody say, ‘ Come, now ; it’s time to go 
to school.’ ” 

Mrs. Snowden then told how they spent 
several days in this region, visiting water- 
falls and climbing through rocky gorges, 
passing their nights in some small rooms 
in the temple. The talk lasted until the 
carriage came for them to take a drive. 


EDDIE AND HIS TEMPER. 


181 


Maggie and Eddie were of the party. In- 
deed, “ there were no two ways about it,” 
Josie said, as far as Eddie was concerned. 
If Mrs. Snowden went anywhere, or started 
to go anywhere, without him, he screamed as 
if he were getting a whipping. Maggie trust- 
ed the neighbors would not think her mother 
was punishing him so soon after his arrival, 
but when he got a little used to things she 
hoped her mother would give him what he 
needed. Maggie and Charlie agreed per- 
fectly about Eddie’s needs, and even gen- 
tle Josie had to confess that she could see 
no other way of curing the naughty boy. 

After they came home from the drive 
Maggie went into her grandmother’s room 
for a talk about Eddie. 

“ My Edward used to have a bad temper,” 
said Grandmother Morris. 

“ I thought you said once he was always a 
good boy ?” questioned Maggie. 

“Did I? Well, he could be very good, 
I’m sure, when he tried.” 

“ Eddie won’t try,” said Maggie. “ How 
did you cure Uncle Edward, grandma? Or 
didn’t he get cured ?” 


182 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Oh yes, he got cured.” 

“ How, grandma ? Did you whip him ?” 

“ Oh no,” said grandma. 

“ Why didn’t you whip him, grandma ?” 

“ I found it did better to talk and pray 
with him ; and so he got cured.” 

Grandma paused, and Maggie was silent a 
moment. 

“ I pray for Eddie,” Maggie said after 
thinking a while. 

“ That’s right, child.” 

“Why don’t you talk to him, grandma?” 

“ He’s afraid of me, Maggie. Wait until 
he gets better acquainted with us all ; he has 
not been here long yet.” 

“ He’s been here long enough to show his 
awful temper,” said Maggie. She counted 
on her fingers as she spoke, and then added, 
“ He’s had nine real tantrums and Maggie 
gave a deep sigh. 

“ Nine ?” said grandmother — “ nine, Mag- 
gie ?” 

“ Yes, grandmother.” 

“ I heard him scream in the entry a while 
ago ; what was the matter ?” 

“ He didn’t want to get out of the carriage, 


EDDIE AND HIS TEMPER. 


183 


and when Mrs. Snowden made him get out 
lie cried to stay on the sidewalk. And he 
cried when we got in the carriage. Mrs. 
Snowden said he acted just so when he rode 
away from the steamer. That makes ten 
tantrums,” said Maggie, musingly. “ But 
I don’t know as I ought to count that one.” 

“ No,” said grandma, in a sympathizing 
tone, “ don’t count them, dear. He’s such 
a little fellow, and you know everything 
must seem strange to him. How would you 
feel alone in China?” 

Maggiesat and thought about it a moment, 
and then said, “ Maybe I’d cry, but I would- 
n’t have tantrums. Do you think I would, 
grandma ?” 

Grandma did not seem to hear what Mag- 
gie said. She looked toward the window, 
and Maggie saw her lips moving. So she 
said to herself, “I guess grandma’s praying 
for Eddie. I’ll go away and not stop her, 
for he needs all the prayers he can get. I 
hope grandma ’ll make a big, long one for 
him.” 

Maggie went to the play-room, and found 
Eddie, in a merry, happy mood, siting in the 


184 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


midst of the playthings. He looked so 
pretty and pleasant that Maggie could not 
help kissing him. As she did so Eddie 
threw his arms around her neck and said, 
“ I love you, Maggie.” 

“ And I love you too when you’re good,” 
she said. “ Why do you get into such tan- 
trums ?” 

“ ‘ Tantums f tantums V ” repeated Eddie, 
laughing ; “ what’s ‘ tantums ’ ?” 

The word seemed to have such a funny 
sound about it that it kept him laughing 
for some time ; and Maggie laughed to hear 
him laugh. 

Eddie’s good-humor was noticeable during 
the first part of the dinner. Maggie whis- 
pered to her grandmother, “ I think God 
heard you right away.” 

“ What, child?” 

“Didn’t you pray for Eddie?” Maggie 
whispered in grandmother’s ear. 

“ Oh yes, child.” 

“ I thought so,” said Maggie. 

But when the dessert came, and an apple 
was placed on Eddie’s plate, he threw it 
against the wall with all his might and 


EDDIE AND HIS TEMPER. 


185 


screamed loudly. Maggie watched him 
with a look of great disappointment. So 
grandmother’s prayer was not yet answered ? 

Eddie, after flinging away the apple seized 
Mrs. Snowden’s pie. “ No mince-pie for 
little boys,” she said. But the little boy 
would not heed her. There was a great 
uproar until Mrs. Snowden carried him out 
of the room. 

“ He’s the biggest heathen I ever saw,” 
exclaimed Charlie in disgust; and Stephen 
added, “ I don’t envy mother her job.” 

Mother sighed, but said nothing. 

On their way from the dining-room they 
met Eddie with a toy in his hand. He ran 
toward Maggie, calling her to come and play 
with him. 

“ Now look at him !” said Stephen : “ you 
wouldn’t think he’d been doing anything. 
He is a pretty little chap.” And Stephen 
caught Eddie, and ran up and down the hall 
with the little boy on his shoulder. Eddie 
was delighted. 

Mrs. Snowden made all the excuses she 
could for Eddie. “ Poor little fellow ! he 
has no mother,” was said so often in his 


186 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

presence that Eddie soon learned to say it 
himself when he was coaxing for anything. 

Sabbath evening Eddie amused them all 
by trying to sing with the others. He soon 
showed that he was fond of music. “ Per- 
haps we can tame him in that way,” remark- 
ed Stephen. 

When Maggie went to Sabbath-school she 
spoke to Miss Bronk about the mission-band, 
and Miss Bronk said she had been thinking 
about asking her class to form a band. She 
very gladly accepted Maggie’s invitation to 
come with the girls to meet Mrs. Snowden. 
As soon as school was dismissed Maggie hur- 
ried out and invited as many as she could 
on the way home. Most of Maggie’s friends 
had already heard of the missionary lady, 
for Maggie had talked about her constantly. 

Charlie said he was going to get up a 
band, but his would be a rubber band to 
put around Eddie, and he’d fasten him to 
a post with it if mother would let him. For 
this speech Charlie was severely rebuked by 
his father, as he deserved ; and Josie could 
not help adding, “ If you were not so cross 
to Eddie you could do more with him.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP . 

T HE new idea that filled Charlie’s mind 
kept him from learning his lessons and 
led to a good deal. of whispering in school; 
for, I am sorry to say, he secretly tried to 
persuade Joe Brown, who sat next to him, 
to go with him. At recess Charlie gathered 
a little group around him and told over all 
the wonderful stories Mrs. Snowden had told 
him. The stories lost nothing of their in- 
terest by Charlie’s repeating them. Charlie 
did not exactly mean to tell lies, but he had 
an active imagination, and was not careful 
enough to tell things exactly as they were 
told him. 

Whether he meant it or not, this boy 
Charlie did lie ; and God heard him. Of 
course you know God hears all we say, but 
we are apt to forget this ; and I think Char- 

187 


188 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


lie forgot it, or he would have been more 
careful. 

The boys liked his stories, and were sorry 
when the school-bell called them back to * 
their lessons. 

“ Charlie,” said Joe Brown, “ I’d like no 
better fun ; but you mustn’t let all the boys 
know, or they’ll tell on us.” 

“ Of course I won’t, Joe. When do you 
say ‘ go ’ ? I won’t get my allowance till Sat- 
urday,” said Charlie. 

“ And it’s only Monday now,” said Joe. 

“ How much will it take ?” 

“ To go round the world, Joe ? Oh, lots, 

I guess. But we can work our way along ; 
lots of chaps do. I’ve read about it in 
story-books.” 

“ I’d like Plum to go,” said Joe. 

“ Plum’s a mother-baby,” said Charlie ; 

“ no use coaxing him.” 

“ He hasn’t any father, you know, Char- 
lie, and his mother loves him an awful 
lot.” 

“Yes, it would be a pity to take him, 
when he’s all she’s got,” said Charlie. “ But 
mother’s got father and Stephen and Maggie 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 189 

and Josie; so I needn’t mind going.” And 
Charlie began to whistle to show he didn’t 
mind leaving all these dear ones who loved 
him so much. 

“ Sure you wouldn’t mind leaving them ?” 
inquired Joe. 

“ No,” said Charlie in a tone that meant 
to be very brave. A great lump came in 
his throat just then, and he found it hard 
work to whistle. 

“You see,” said Joe, “I don’t know how 
it would seem to leave them all.” 

“All who?” asked Charlie. 

“ Why, I mean father and mother and 
brother and two sisters,” said Joe. “I’ve 
only grandpa and grandma, you know.” 

“ Yes, Joe.” 

. “ And we could come back again, Charlie.” 

“Oh yes.” 

“ And we’d bring home a heap of curious 
things.” 

“ Yes, Joe.” 

“ We’ll go as soon as you get your allow- 
ance, Charlie.” 

“Yes, Joe. Good-bye; I must go home 
now.” And Charlie ran off, trying to swal- 


190 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


low down the great lump and wiping a tear 
or two out of his eyes, and saying to him- 
self as he went home, “ I ’most wish I 
hadn’t told Joe. He wants to go more 
than I do.” 

If the strange stories told by Mrs. Snow- 
den had not been very diverting, Charlie 
would have been uncomfortable and unhap- 
py in the home-circle he was so soon to 
leave. 

Maggie sometimes looked searchingly at 
him, wondering if he had been “ only jok- 
ing.” She did not like to tell any one of 
the conversation they had had. 

As Charlie came into the pleasant room 
where the family were sitting, he saw Eddie 
quietly sitting on his mother’s lap and Mag- 
gie on his father’s, while Josie and Stephen 
sat one each side of Mrs. Snowden, who 
seemed never to tire of talking and an- 
swering their questions. 

Charlie did love his home and his parents, 
but just now a restlessness had taken pos- 
session of him, and he foolishly thought he 
would like to be his own master. 

As Charlie entered the room he heard 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 191 


Stephen say, “ But you have not told us 
what the Buddhist temples are like, Mrs. 
Snowden.” 

“ Of course you have seen pictures of them, 
Stephen ?” 

“ Yes, ma’am.” 

“ They are generally made of bricks, with 
tiled roofs, and their favorite ornaments are 
large carved lions and dragons. Inside the 
temple you find an image of Buddha sitting 
like a tailor at his work.” 

“Uncle Edward told us about Buddha,” 
said Josie. 

“ I forgot almost all he told us,” remarked 
Charlie. 

“ So did I,” echoed Maggie. 

“ You were only six years old when he 
was here, Maggie,” said her mother. 

“ I don’t believe she remembers anything,” 
said Stephen. 

“Yes, I do,” said Maggie; “I remember 
Eddie. He had one little tooth, and he used 
to cry o’ nights.” 

They laughed a little at this, and Stephen 
said, “You said yesterday, Mrs. Snowden, 
that you once lived in a Buddhist temple. 


192 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


How could you? I shouldn’t think they 
would let you.” 

“ Why, there are rooms connected with 
these temples where monks live. We 
stayed with them while on the island of 
Pootoo. Maggie says she don’t like rice, 
so she would not like to see the iron ket- 
tles I saw in their kitchen. They were 
used for boiling rice, and would hold as 
much as two or three barrels.” 

“ They give rice to their gods,” remarked 
Mr. Arnold. 

“ Their gods might have all mine,” said 
Maggie. 

<k Easier to give rice than pennies, Maggie,” 
said her father. 

“ Uncle Edward said they carried incense- 
sticks and candles to their gods in the tem- 
ples,” said Stephen. 

“ Yes, they do,” said Mrs. Snowden ; 
“ and they buy from the priests a picture 
of Buddha, and the worshiper gets her own 
name written on it and the date of her 
birth.” 

“ Why do you say ‘her'?” asked Mrs. 
Arnold. “ Ho not the men go to worship?” 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 193 

“ It is more common to see the women 
worshiping.” 

“ What do they do with the paper, Mrs. 
Snowden ?” 

“ This paper also tells them they may be 
sure of happiness in the world to come.” 

“ I would like to have such a paper,” said 
Josie thoughtfully. 

“You have this assurance, Josie,” said 
her father : “ ‘ Blessed are they that do his 
commandments, that they may have right to 
the tree of life and may enter in through 
the gates into the city.’ ” 

“ You asked what they do with the paper, 
Mrs. Arnold. They kneel for hours, repeat- 
ing as rapidly as possible one of the names 
of Buddha.” 

“ How does it sound ?” asked Charlie, who 
found a great charm in the strange-sounding 
Chinese words. 

“ Na-mi O-mi-to Fuh ! na-mi O-mi-to 
Fuh!” replied Mrs. Snowden. 

Charlie and Maggie repeated these words, 
trying to chant them like Mrs. Snowden. 

“ Their chanting always reminds me of the 
whistling wind,” said Mrs. Snowden. 

13 


194 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“It does have a mournful sound,” said 
Mrs. Arnold. 

“We once went to a Buddhist monastery,” 
said Mrs. Snowden, “ where we heard a 
strange story, which I will tell you if you 
should like to hear it.” 

“ Oh do, Mrs. Snowden !” 

“ There was a well at this monastery, and 
a priest standing beside it, holding a small 
lamp. He lowered the lamp to the edge of 
the water, and we saw down in the well a 
large log. 4 How did it get there ? What 
does it mean ?’ we asked. And this was the 
story they told us : Many, many years ago a 
holy monk lived in this monastery. He was 
so holy that the gods rewarded him by giv- 
ing him the power to work miracles. One 
day this holy man saw a beautiful young 
lady entering the temple. Reverently she 
came up to one of the idols as if to worship, 
but when this holy monk looked at her he 
detected her true character, for within her 
dwelt the fire-god. Here was cause for great 
alarm.” 

“ Why ?” asked Charlie. “ Would she 
burn the temple?” 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 195 

“ Yes ; in a few days the temple was burn- 
ed to the ground.” 

“ Did she do it, Mrs. Snowden ?” 

“ They thought she did. The monk tried 
to comfort the frightened people by saying, 
4 Be comforted, dear brothers ; your temple 
shall speedily be rebuilt. I must leave you 
for a while, but on such a day 9 (which he 
named) ‘go to the well and draw up what 
you want for building. , He then traveled off 
several hundred miles until he came to a 
great forest, where he cut down trees and 
threw them into a well close by where he 
was working.” 

“ Threw trees into a well ? What was that 
for?” asked Charlie. 

“ Nobody could find out just then ; some 
thought he was crazy. He worked on with- 
out saying anything.” 

“ Like Noah when he built the ark,” said 
Maggie. 

“ When the right day came the monks 
went to the monastery-well.” 

“ Not the well he threw the trees in — was 
it, Mrs. Snowden ?” asked Maggie. 

“ No. You must remember that that well 


196 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


was several hundred miles away. And the 
holy monk told his brother-monks to go to 
the monastery - well and draw up timber for 
building.” 

“ Yes, I understand now,” said Maggie. 

“ Day and night the monks worked at the 
well, drawing up timber until they were 
tired out ; and one man exclaimed, ‘ I wish 
there were no more.’ As he said this the 
beautiful large log he was raising became 
immovable. All the monks came and help- 
ed him pull, but they could not move it; and 
there it is yet.” 

“ It sounds like a fairy-story,” exclaimed 
Maggie. 

“ I guess it is,” said Josie. 

“ Did they rebuild the monastery ?” inquir- 
ed Stephen. 

“ Yes ; we visited it. The rebels destroy- 
ed it after that. It had a large hall contain- 
ing five hundred idols.” 

“ Little ones they must have been,” said 
Stephen. 

“No; they were very large. Some were 
sitting, others standing, and all on high 
pedestals.” 



Hall of Five Hundred Gods 


Page 196 








' 







CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 197 

“How larger 

“ As large as a large man.” 

“ Did you ever see the Chinese prepare 
tea, Mrs. Snowden ?” asked Stephen. 

“ I am afraid we shall tire Mrs. Snowden 
with our questions/’ remarked Mrs. Arnold. 

“ No, no ; ask me anything you choose, 
for unless you ask questions I hardly know 
where to begin or where to end.” 

“ We want to know about so many things,” 
said Josie. 

“ And I want to tell you about so many 
things, Josie. And I can tell you about 
the tea as I saw it prepared for the foreign 
market.” 

“ Why do you say ‘ for the foreign mar- 
ket ’ ?” asked Josie. “ Don’t they use it for 
themselves ?” 

“ Oh yes, but for their own use they pre- 
pare it more simply. We went to a large 
establishment where we saw tea-leaves dry- 
ing in large iron pans. A slow fire was heat- 
ed under them, and a man stood by and 
stirred them.” 

“ Uncle Edward said the natives don’t use 
milk and sugar in their tea,” said Josie. 


198 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ No,” said Mrs. Snowden ; “ and they have 
an odd way of putting tea-leaves in the cup 
and putting the saucer over the cup while 
the tea draws.” 

“ Make it in the cup, instead of in a tea- 
pot?” asked Josie. 

“Yes ; I have often seen them do so. — 
What will Maggie say when I tell her that 
barefooted men often tread down the tea- 
leaves to pack them closer ?” 

Maggie’s face wore an expression of dis- 
gust. 

“ You will have to drink green tea, Mag- 
gie, for the green tea-leaves are too tender to 
be pressed in this way.” 

“ Do they put the leaves right over the fire 
as soon as they are picked ?” asked Stephen. 

“ No. First the leaves are exposed to the 
sun, and wilted thoroughly. Then they are 
put in shallow vessels, usually made of bam- 
boo splints, where they are trodden upon to 
separate the fibres and stems.” 

“ By barefooted men ?” exclaimed Maggie 
in disgust. 

“ Yes. Then the leaves are rolled in the 
hands of men to make them round, and 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 199 

placed in a heap to heat for half an hour 
or longer ; after which they are again spread 
in the sun, for if they are not thoroughly 
dried they will mould before reaching you 
poor ‘outside barbarians/ After this they 
are sifted on coarse sieves, and picked over 
again and again, and dried several times. 
The whole process is quite long.” 

“ What does the tea- plant look like ?” in- 
quired Stephen. 

“ The plant looks like a currant-bush when 
seen at a distance. Women and children do 
the picking for a few cents a day.” 

“ Mrs. Snowden,” said Charlie, “ how do 
the Chinese travel about ? I mean, what 
kind of carriages do they ride in?” 

“ We ride in sedans. In the north of 
China mule-litters are used.” 

“Do the mules draw the litters?” asked 
Charlie. 

“ The poles supporting the palanquin or 
mule-litter rest on mules, one mule before 
and another behind. A driver walks beside 
each animal. The motion is easy for a while, 
but soon becomes tiresome, for there are no 
springs and no seats.” 


200 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

" No seats !” exclaimed Stephen. “ What 
do the riders do?” 

“ Spread mattresses on the bottom, and 
they have pillows to lean against,” said 
Mrs. Snowden. 

“ That sounds comfortable,” said Josie. 

“ Yes, but the mules have a rough way of 
jolting you.” 

“ You ride in sedan chairs in the south, 
did you not say?” asked Mrs. Arnold. 

“ Yes. It is a lonely way of traveling, 
each one by himself.” 

“ Why not make chairs to carry two?” 
asked Josie. 

“ The roads are too narrow. One of the 
missionaries at Amoy invented a chair to 
hold himself and wife, but they had to sit 
facing each other. You see, the Chinese 
cannot spare room for wide roads ; the land 
is too precious to be used for roads. 4 And 
why should there be room for husband and 
wife to walk side by side, when the wife's 
proper place is behind her husband V ” 

44 Why do they say her proper place is 
behind her husband, Mrs. Snowden ?” ask- 
ed Josie. 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 201 

“ Because she is not considered good 
enough to walk beside a man. Don’t you 
know, Josie, that in heathen lands women 
are always degraded ? They are the slaves 
of men except where the religion of our 
Lord Jesus rules. Don’t you think women 
in this country ought to do all they can 
to send the gospel to their downtrodden 
sisters ?” 

Josie looked very thoughtful. 

Charlie exclaimed, “ ‘ Sisters ’ ?” 

And Mrs. Arnold said, ‘ “ Have we not all 
one Father?’” 

Mrs. Snowden was anxious to go to her 
home, but as a long journey yet lay before 
her, her friends urged two reasons for her 
remaining longer with them. First, that 
she might be thoroughly rested after her 
sea- voyage ; and the second reason was, 
that little Eddie might grow more con- 
tented, for he still clung to Mrs. Snowden, 
and would not let any one else do anything 
for him. The journey home had done Mrs. 
Snowden good ; she was feeling very much 
better. But her friends urged her to re- 


202 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


main with them until she had gained more 
strength. 

“ Why do missionaries always come home 
sick?” asked Maggie. 

“ They don’t always,” said Charlie ; “ Un- 
cle Edward didn’t.” 

“ The climate affects many unfavorably,” 
said Mrs. Snowden ; “ and you must remem- 
ber that it is when they are sick that they 
visit America. Those who are well remain 
at their posts.” 

“ Is it unfavorable at Ningpo ?” inquired 
Stephen. 

“ Yes, Ningpo is a trying place in summer 
for those who are not natives. Sometimes 
we are obliged to go to the island of Pootoo. 
Pootoo is a great place for Buddhists. They 
have four large temples and nearly a hun- 
dred small ones, and many hundred priests.” 

“All on this one island ?” asked Stephen. 

“Yes; this island is devoted to religion, 
and has been for more than eight hundred 
years.” 

“ Theirs is a queer religion, it seems to 
me,” said Josie. 

“ What rule has God given to direct us 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 203 

how we may glorify and enjoy him, Josie ?” 
asked her father. 

Josie knew her father always wanted the 
answer to be given in the very words of the 
Catechism, so she answered, “ * The word of 
God which is contained in the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments is the only rule 
to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy 
him.’ ” 

“ Then, if they do not have the Bible, how 
can they know what God would have them 
do? How can they know what kind of 
worship suits him?” said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ I always used to think the heathen were 
very stupid,” remarked Stephen. 

“ They are not,” answered Mrs. Snowden. 
“ Ningpo has a high literary reputation ; 
many able scholars have lived there. 
There are some fine bookstores in the 
city. You would be amused to see Pil- 
grim's Progress in Chinese. Christian is 
in Chinese dress and wears a long queue.” 

“ They may not be stupid,” said Stephen, 
“ but they have the funniest way of doing 
things. The idea of boys reciting in school 
with their backs to the teacher!” 


204 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Repeating a lesson they call ‘ backing 
it/ ” said Mrs. Snowden. “ And the boy 
who makes a mistake gets a blow on the 
back of his closely-shaven head.” 

“ Big men fly kites/’ said Charlie. 

“ And play shuttlecock with their feet,” 
added Mrs. Snowden. 

“ And twist their corkscrews the wrong 
way,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ I do not know that I ever saw one of 
their corkscrews,” said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ That shows that you are a temperance 
woman,” said Mr. Arnold. 

These oddities amused Maggie, and she 
said, “ What else do they do ?” 

“ Put gowns on their boys,” said Josie. 

“ And eyes on their boats,” added Mrs. 
Snowden. 

“ What do they put eyes on their boats 
for?” asked Charlie. 

“ They say, ‘ If boat have no eye, how can 
see?’ So they paint an eye on each side of 
their sampans. They call their boats sam- 
pans.” 

Mrs. Snowden, in answer to their questions, 
told how the people lived in these boats. She 


CHINESE TEMPLES AND WORSHIP. 205 

had seen women, dressed like men, with loose 
pants and gowns which came to the knees, 
rowing boats with sleeping babies strapped 
to their backs, while the babies’ heads bob- 
bed about with every motion the mothers 
made. Sometimes she had seen half a doz- 
en children tumbling about in the boat and 
leaning over its sides, looking as if at any 
moment they might fall into the water. 
Sometimes the little children have bamboo 
floats fastened to the;r backs to save their 
lives in case of accident. 

The idea of children floating on the water 
amused Maggie. She said she guessed the 
mothers would hurry to pull the boys into 
the boat, but she supposed they’d let the 
girls soak a long while. “Boys get all 
the petting, I suppose?” she said in a 
mournful way that amused them all. 

Mrs. Snowden said they were so afraid 
that evil spirits would injure their boys 
that they tried to deceive them by giving 
girls’ names to the boys. Their religion is 
one of fear, not of love. She then re- 
peated in Chinese the names of some of 
the children she knew. She said convert- 


206 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ed parents often selected Bible names for 
tbeir children. Mark and John did very 
well, but she could not say she liked as 
well “ Acts of the Apostles ” or “ Year of 
Jubilee.” 

“ You don’t mean to say any children 
have these names ?” said Stephen in aston- 
ishment. 

“ Yes. They find them in the Bible, and 
they sound as well as any others to them.” 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE MISSION-BAND. 

T UESDAY afternoon came at last, and 
the parlors were well filled with lively 
girls waiting to hear what the missionary 
had to tell them about China. Maggie had 
been counting the chairs and measuring the 
lounges to see if all the girls could be seated, 
but it looked as if none of them ever would 
sit down. They were chattering and hop- 
ping around, for Mrs. Snowden had not yet 
come down. She was in her room, and the 
door was closed. Perhaps she was asking 
her heavenly Father to bless that meeting 
and to incline the hearts of those young 
girls to serve him in heathen lands. 

Three o’clock ! As the little French clock 
on Mrs. Snowden’s mantelpiece told the hour 
she opened her door and met Mrs. Arnold, 
who was coming to call her. They went 

207 


208 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


down stairs together, and Mrs. Arnold in- 
troduced her to the girls. After a few mo- 
men ts J conversation she said : “ I received 
a paper by mail to-day which contains the 
story of Too Dee. I want to read it to 
you.” 

“Did the paper come from China?” ask- 
ed Mrs. Arnold. 

Mrs. Snowden said it did. 

“ Too Dee is one of the gods worshiped by 
the Chinese. He is not a god of high rank, 
but he is universally worshiped, and is much 
feared and honored. His history, as given 
in Chinese books and generally believed by 
the people, is as follows : There was in an- 
cient times a good king called Chew Clung, 
whose justice and wisdom made the people 
virtuous and happy. He made a law that 
outside of each village should be built by 
the roadside a small house, and that if any 
one found anything that had been lost he 
should put it into this little house, where 
the loser might go and find it.” 

“ I wish that were the fashion here,” said 
Maggie. 

“ You’d do your full part toward filling 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


209 


it,” remarked Josie. This made the girls 
laugh. 

“ This custom continued for over a thou- 
sand years, and the little house grew at last 
into a little temple, and had a god in it. 
The way this came to pass is said to have 
been as follows : In the Yang dynasty, over 
a thousand years ago, there was a man of 
great learning and reputation called Han 
Yu. He was a high officer of spotless 
character. Han Yu had a nephew called 
She Er Lang, who wanted very much to 
become a priest, but his uncle would not 
allow it. Finally, however, She Er Lang 
wrote a very admirable essay on virtue and 
piety, and sent it to his uncle, and then ran 
away to a mountain called Tsung Nan, and 
lived there many years; and finally, for his 
virtue, was changed into a god. 

“ His uncle by and by grew old, retired 
from office and returned to his old home. 
He was one day standing alone on the street- 
corner, when a young man came up to him 
and made a very low bow. He at once re- 
cognized him as his nephew, She Er Lang, 
and was astonished to see him, after so many 

14 


210 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


years, still a young man. From this he 
knew that She Er Lang must have become 
a god. 

“ He thought, ‘I am old, and have not 
long to live. The best thing for me would 
be to get She Er Lang to take me with him 
up to heaven/ So he asked him if he 
would ; and She Er Lang opened his wide 
priest-sleeve and told him to jump in.” 

“ Easy way of getting to heaven !” cried 
Belle Peet, who had kept quiet as long as 
she could. 

“ Wait till you see how it ends,” said Mrs. 
Snowden. “He jumped in, and in a moment 
was sailing through the air, far away among 
the clouds and stars — he knew not whither. 
Suddenly he found himself set down before 
a great gate, twelve rods high and three and 
a half rods wide. The boards of this gate 
were nailed with nails of gold, the walls 
were built of pearls, and the tower over 
the gate was set with diamonds. He saw 
also at the side of the gate a telescope, 
through which could be seen everything 
that was done in the world, and an ear- 
trumpet, by which could be heard every- 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


211 


thing that was said ; and he heard a voice 
saying, 


* Let men be careful how their lives appear, 
For every little thing is noted here.’ 


“Han Yu knew that this was the gate of 
heaven, and so thought he would go in, but, 
suddenly thinking of his wife and children 
left behind, he drew back. 

“ This made She Er Lang angry, and he 
gave him a slap with his long sleeve, which 
sent him flying, and he fell back like a stone 
to the earth ; and the fall dashed him to 
pieces. She Er Lang was sorry for his uncle’s 
miserable death, and as his soul was leaving 
his body he said to him, ‘ When you see a 
red door, go in ’ (meaning by this the door of 
a temple). But Han Yu understood him to 
say simply, 4 When you see a door, go in.’ 
The first door he came to was the door of 
one of those little Too Dee houses, and so in 
he went, and, staying there, became a little 
god. He saw people bringing things in and 
taking things out, but no one worshiped him, 
or knew, in fact, that he was there. So he 
thought he would give some sign of his pres- 


212 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ence and power. He accordingly caused a 
little whirlwind to start up before the faces 
of those who visited the Too Dee house. 
This blinded their eyes and made their 
heads ache. 

“The report soon spread that there was 
a god in the Too Dee house, and persons who 
had pain in their heads came to burn paper- 
money and worship the god ; and all who 
came were cured. So the people made a 
little image, and set it up in the house, and 
called it Too Dee. The house they called 
the Too Dee temple. 

“ Many now came to make vows and pray 
to Too Dee. But Too Dee was not satisfied, for 
although plenty of money and incense was 
given to him, yet the people did not know 
who he was ; and besides, he had no wife. 

“ One night he spoke aloud to those who 
were worshiping him ; and this is what he 
said : 

‘ It’s Too Dee that speaks, and Han is my name. 

I can live on the east or the south all the same ; 

The second month’s second does my birthday repeat, 

And fried macaroni is what I like best to eat. 

Paper-money and incense are good, to be sure, 

But to live so alone I cannot endure ; 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


213 


So I’ll thank you to make me a nice little wife, 

And I’ll keep you in peace all the days of your life.’ 

“ The people, after hearing this speech, 
made him a little image of a woman, and 
set it up beside him for a wife.” 

The girls all laughed at this, but Mrs. 
Arnold said, “ It sounds like baby-play. 
How can big people believe such non- 
sense ?” 

“ Do the people really believe it, Mrs. 
Snowden ?” asked Belle. 

“ Certainly they do.” 

“ Please go on,” said the girls. 

“ Afterward, Yen Wong, the god who 
judges men, grew angry with Too Dee be- 
cause he took bribes ; and he sent and 
bound Too Dee, and tried him. Of course 
he decided that Too Dee was guilty, and Yen 
Wong condemned him to be skinned alive, 
which is the punishment inflicted by the 
gods on those who take bribes. She Er 
Lang now appeared, just in this time of 
his uncle’s greatest need, and interceded 
for him ; and finally Yen Wong conclud- 
ed he would only take away Too Dee’s 
official robe. This was more comfortable 


214 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


for Too Dee than taking off his skin. His 
judge warned him not to take bribes any 
more. And after receiving this warning he 
was sent back and appointed head of all the 
Too Dees. 

“ Hence Too Dee is always represented as 
wearing a plain silk coat, instead of the of- 
ficial robe worn by other gods, and no large 
offerings of paper-money are made to him. 
He is, however, worshiped by all, high and 
low, and his power in his own village is sup- 
posed to include everything. 

“ When a child is born, offerings are al- 
ways presented to him, and the same is done 
whenever anything else is born. If the 
offering is omitted, Too Dee will certainly 
seize the child or the animal, and it will 
die. 

“ When any one dies, offerings must be 
made to Too Dee. If the person is a fa- 
ther or mother, the worship is regarded as 
of the greatest importance. The eldest son 
ties a coarse rope around his body, and, tak- 
ing a bowl of gruel in one hand and a staff 
in the other, he goes crying to the temple, 
while other members of the family carry a 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


215 


padlock, a meat-chopper and some bundles 
of paper-money ; and, if the people are able, 
priests are hired to beat drums. 

“ In front of the idol the gruel is poured 
out as an offering ; the lock is opened, which 
lets the soul loose from confinement ; a stroke 
is made on the ground with the meat-chop- 
per, which splits off the cangue (a wooden 
collar) from his neck ; and the paper-money 
is burned to propitiate the god, while crack- 
ers are fired to attract his attention. Thus 
the soul is supposed to be released and sent 
on to the next higher god, to go through the 
same process there, and so on until Yen 
Wong, the final judge, is reached. 

“ Lest, however, there should be some 
mistake or delay, and also for the sake of 
securing prosperity and happiness for them- 
selves, they make offerings regularly to Too 
Dee throughout the year. On New Year’s 
Day paper-money and incense are burned. 
On Too Dee’s birthday fried macaroni is 
offered, and in the sixth month steamed 
bread. Besides, it is the regular custom to 
make offerings of some kind on the first 
and fifteenth of each month. 


216 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Too Dee is supposed to take notice of 
everything that is done in the village. 
Ordinary matters he decides himself, and 
concerning greater ones he takes testimony 
and then sends them up to his superiors. 
Every village is supposed to have its own 
Too Dee, all being appointed by Han Yu, 
the head Too Dee.” 

After finishing the story of Too Dee the 
missionary band was organized. Mrs. Snow- 
den explained to the girls that she wanted 
them to raise twenty dollars a year for five 
years. 

“ How can we raise so much ?” inquired 
Belle Peet, who was always first to speak. 

“ Here are six subscription-books,” said 
Mrs. Snowden, taking from the table six 
tiny blank-books. “ Go to your friends and 
get as many subscriptions as you can. The 
amount is small — only fifty cents a year for 
ladies, and twenty-five cents for children. 
Are there six girls here who are willing to 
be collectors?” 

She looked around at the girls. Belle 
eagerly exclaimed, “ I’ll do it.” And Mag- 
gie said, “ So will I.” 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


21 7 


Mrs. Snowden gave a book to Belle, and 
one to Maggie. Then there was a pause. 
“No one else willing ?” at length inquired 
Mrs. Snowden. 

“ I do not understand how it is,” said a 
tiinid girl named Lilly Bay. 

“ You are to take this little blank-book,” 
said Mrs. Snowden, “ and go to your friends 
and get them to put down their names and 
give you their contributions. And they 
must promise to give this amount every 
year for five years.” 

“ Your mother would put down her name, 
I am sure, Lilly,” said Mrs. Arnold. “ Ask 
her first.” 

“Yes; and ask your aunt Mary,” said 
Maggie; “she’s rich.” 

Lilly said no more, but quietly took one 
of the books. Four other girls rose to get 
books, but, seeing only three books were 
left, one of the girls drew back. Mrs. 
Arnold noticed the girl as she sat down, 
and she said quickly, “ I propose Jeannie 
Clare for the treasurer of this band.” 

“ She’d be splendid !” said Maggie ; “ she 
never makes a mistake coun ng money. ’ 


218 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

This made Miss Bronk smile. Jeannie 
was in Miss Bronk's class, and Miss Bronk 
had appointed her treasurer of the class- 
money. Only last Sabbath she had praised 
Jeannie in Maggie’s hearing when Jeannie 
handed in the money for the quarter. 

“ Oh, that reminds me,” said Mrs. Snow- 
den, “that we have no president. I think 
Mrs. Arnold would be a good person for 
president.” 

“ I did not think bands needed presidents, 
Mrs. Snowden.” 

“ They require the supervision of some 
lady,” replied Mrs. Snowden ; “ some one 
must watch over and direct these girls.” 

“ Then I will nominate Miss Bronk,” said 
Mrs. Arnold ; but Miss Bronk declined, say- 
ing that she was kept very busy with two 
other societies, and would rather have Mrs. 
Arnold fill this place. So Mrs. Arnold made 
no further objection, but promised to do all 
she could to help the band. 

The girls present gave their names to the 
new collectors. Twenty-eight girls were 
present, including Josie. Miss Bronk and 
Mrs. Arnold made the number thirty. It 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


219 


was agreed that each collector should have 
five names in her book to start with. Mrs. 
Arnold put her name in Maggie’s book ; 
Miss Bronk said she would head Belle Peet’s 
list. I don’t know whether she would have 
thought of it, but I know Belle did not give 
her a chance to think. She had her book 
in Miss Bronk’s lap before anybody could 
get ahead of her. Belle was in Miss Bronk’s 
class. 

“ How often will you hold meetings ?” 
asked Mrs. Snowden. 

“ Every week,” said the impulsive Belle. 

“ Oh no,” said Mrs. Snowden ; “ you 
would get tired of it if you met so often.” 

“ Once a month ?” questioned Maggie. 

“ That would do better, Maggie,” answered 
Mrs. Snowden. 

“ I didn’t know you were going to stay 
here,” said Belle, addressing Mrs. Snowden. 

Mrs. Snowden smiled and said she was 
not. 

“ But how can we have meetings without 
you ?” inquired Belle. “ What would we 
do ?” 

“ You would do one thing that we have, 


220 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


strangely enough, forgotten to do — offer 
prayer. Let us pray now before we go 
any further/’ 

They all knelt down, and the missionary 
asked God to guide the little girls in all 
their plans and to make them useful Chris- 
tians. When they rose from their knees 
she said, “ I wonder how many of you are 
giving the Lord Jesus the best love of your 
hearts ?” 

No one spoke. Jeannie Clare looked up 
and caught Mrs. Snowden’s eye. A quick, 
bright expression passed over the young 
girl’s countenance. Mrs. Snowden said 
nothing more at that time. But as Jean- 
nie bade her good-afternoon she said, 
“ You love Jesus, Jeannie ?” — And Jean- 
nie replied, “ I do, Mrs. Snowden. Do you 
think he will let me teach the heathen ?” — 
“ I hope so, my dear child,” the missionary 
replied. 

Then they talked about the way in which 
they should conduct their meetings. It was 
proposed that Mrs. Arnold should read a sto- 
ry to the girls while they pieced a quilt to be 
sent to somebody in a mission-box. 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


221 


Lottie Price, wlien asked to put down her 
name, said, “ My mother says she would rath- 
er give to Western missionaries, because Aunt 
Louise is just as poor as she can be.” 

“ Where is Aunt Louise ?” asked Mrs. 
Snowden. 

“ She is ’way off in Colorado ; and they 
don’t have much besides what they get in 
boxes,” answered Lottie. 

“ What they get in boxes !” exclaimed 
Maggie. “ What do you mean ?” 

“ Why, father and mother send to her 
everything they can spare in large boxes,” 
explained Lottie. “ Auntie wrote that she 
did not know what they would do for bed- 
ding another winter. Mother said she had 
a great mind to ask the ladies of the church 
to help make some.” 

That led Mrs. Arnold to propose that the 
girls should make a quilt to send to Lottie’s 
aunt. Miss Bronk and Josie said they would 
cut and baste the patches. 

When they came to the tea-table, to Mr. 
Arnold’s question whether she were not tired 
Mrs. Snowden replied that she was not ; she 
had enjoyed it as much as the girls. 


222 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY 


When Maggie told Stephen and Charlie 
that they had missed the story of Too Dee, 
Charlie said he would have liked well enough 
to hear the story, but he did hate to go where 
there were so many girls. When Stephen 
found that the story was printed he asked 
leave to read it. 

As they came out from tea Mrs. Snowden 
asked Josie if she would not like to be a 
missionary. 

“ If there was nobody else to go, Mrs. 
Snowden, I think I would, because, you 
know, I would not want them to die hea- 
then ; but so many ladies have gone I think 
they vyon’t need me.” 

“ So many ! My dear child, have you look- 
ed on the map and considered the size of 
China?’’ 

“ Oh yes, ma’am.” 

“ And do you know that two hundred mil- 
lion heathen women and girls live in that 
land ?” 

“ I did not think there were so many.” 

“ And how many missionary ladies, do 
you think?” 

“ I don’t know.” 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


223 


“ About one for each eight hundred 
thousand.” 

“ Oh, Mrs. Snowden !’ 

“And even this is made worse by the 
fact that, as some of these missionaries have 
families to care for, they cannot give their 
whole time to teaching.” 

“ Clara White thinks it would be real 
romantic to go off as a missionary. She 
wants to come and hear you talk, Mrs. 
Snowden.” 

“ I hope she will come, and I will try to 
tell her something interesting. But there 
is not much romance about it.” 

Josie invited Clara home to tea the next 
evening, and Mrs. Snowden told her many 
interesting things about traveling in China, 
and said it might sound romantic when read 
in a book, but it was very wearisome in 
reality. “You may be jolted in a cart, or 
bumped in a wheelbarrow, or swung or 
shaken in a mule -litter, and after three 
or four days you have had quite enough 
of it for pleasure.” 

“ Why not ride on a donkey ?” Clara 
asked. 


224 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ That makes your back ache.” 

“ Do you have nice hotels to stay in ?” 

“ Oh no, Clara — miserable dirty inns. 
A little room with earthen floor, paper win- 
dow, one or too long, narrow, hard benches, 
and perhaps one clumsy chair.” 

“ I wouldn’t tell Clara, all about the hard 
part, Mrs. Snowden,” said Stephen. “ She 
won’t want to go.” 

“ It is better to count the cost before you 
set out. Don’t you think our Saviour did 
this before he came down to die for us?” 

And Grandmother Morris, sitting there 
so quietly, said, “ ‘ He counted not his life 
dear unto him.’ ” 

“ And so we mustn’t, grandma,” said 
Maggie. 

“ I hope you will not hesitate, dear child, 
when the Lord calls.” 

Dear old Grandmother Morris ! It was 
true, as Charlie said : grandmother did not 
speak more than once every two or three 
hours, but when she did speak she said 
just the right words in the right way. 

“ Mother says China is crowded full of 
people,” said Clara. 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


225 


A sad expression rested for a moment 
upon the face of the missionary. “Yes, 
Clara/’ she replied, “and very few Chris- 
tians to tell them of Jesus.” 

“ I guess they give up their idols as soon 
as you tell them it’s wrong to worship them ; 
don’t they?” 

“ No, Clara ; I wish they did. You 
must remember that these people have 
been brought up to believe in idol- worship, 
and it is hard to turn men from a lifelong 
belief.” 

“ But they can’t love those horrid, ugly 
idols,” said Clara. 

“ Some of the people of Siam worship 
the devil, Clara.” 

This made all the children exclaim at 
once, “ Oh, Mrs. Snowden !” 

“ Their worship is one of fear, not love,” 
said Mrs. Snowden. “ But it is the religion 
in which they are brought up. And there 
is another reason that keeps some from ac- 
cepting the religion of Christ: they would 
have to make great sacrifices ; some of them 
follow trades which must be given up if they 
become Christians.” 


15 


226 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ What trades ?” asked Stephen. 

“ In the great city of Hangchow, I am 
told, there are forty or fifty thousand peo- 
ple engaged in the manufacture of tinsel- 
paper to be used in idolatrous religious 
ceremonies. Becoming Christians, these 
people must give up the craft by which 
they live and support their families.” 

“ What do they use tinsel-paper for ?” 
asked Josie. 

“ It is burned for the use of departed spir- 
its. I have heard that in this same city may 
often be seen on the streets seven old women 
sitting near a house-door praying over rice- 
straws. When a family fear they have of- 
fended a god — ” 

“ How do they know when they have of- 
fended a god ?” interrupted Charlie. 

“ Perhaps fever breaks out in the house. 
They send for these women ; it is cheaper 
than sending for a priest. Each old woman 
brings one hundred rice-straws. The seven 
hundred straws are passed one by one from 
hand to hand every time the name of Bud- 
dha is uttered, until all the seven hundred 
straws have gone, around so many times. 


THE MISSION-BAND. 


227 


When this service is over the straws are 
tied in a bundle and burned. This burn- 
ing, it is believed, changes them into golden 
straws in the spirit-world, thus enabling the 
angry spirit to open a shop and carry on a 
thriving business. In this way his anger is 
diverted from the suffering family. ,, 

“ I should think it would take the old 
women a good while to pass around so many 
straws,” said Charlie. 

“ They devote a whole day to it. They 
receive three meals and considerable money 
for their services, but do not charge as much 
as the priests. Now, if one of these women 
should be converted, don’t you see that she 
would have to give up the trade by which 
she earns her living?” 

“ Yes, Mrs. Snowden,” said Clara timidly, 
“ but wouldn’t they gain more than they 
would lose if they found Christ ?” 

“ Of course they would, Clara, but it is 
hard to make them understand this.” 

“ I would not know how to be a missionary,” 
said Clara — “ I mean, how to go to work to 
make them love me and listen to me.” 

“ Missionary ladies in Hangchow have 


228 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


sometimes carried beans, nuts and foreign 
pins in their pockets, and when they re- 
ceived rudeness from the children in the 
streets they stopped and gave these chil- 
dren a little present. This pleased the 
children, and gave the ladies a chance to 
talk to them about Jesus.” 

“ Why not do that to the children in the 
streets here?” asked Clara. 

“ Because you are not a missionary,” said 
Maggie. 

Then Mrs. Snowden said we could be mis- 
sionaries anywhere. In every place could be 
found those who do not love the Saviour, 
and we ought to try in every way in our 
power to lead them to Jesus. “ You all can 
be missionaries,” she said, “without going 
away from your own homes. You can find 
children to bring to Sabbath-school, and in 
many other ways you can do good.” 

I think Mrs. Snowden said some things to 
the girls which they will never forget. I 
hope they will become earnest Christians, 
for in this way they can express their 
thankfulness to God for giving them the 
knowledge of Jesus • Christ.” 


CHAPTER XVI. 

CHINESE CUSTOMS. 

T HE week was passing pleasantly and 
rapidly. The children did not like to 
think about Mrs. Snowden’s leaving them. 
Maggie never supposed she would have 
loved a stranger so much, and Josie said 
she liked her as soon as she looked at 
her. 

Maggie was greatly puzzled about a name 
for their band. The girls could not agree 
about it. Some wanted to call it “ Helping 
Hands others thought “ Willing Workers” 
a better name. Jeannie Clare thought it 
ought to be “The Snowden Band,” and 
Elsie Green, who was very fond of Mag- 
gie’s mother, thought it ought to be called 
“The Arnold Band.” 

Mrs. Arnold at length brought unity into 

229 


230 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

the ranks by suggesting a title, “ Willing 
Hearts and Hands.” 

“ That’s just it,” said Belle Peet, “for 
father says if our hearts aren’t willing our 
hands won’t do much.” 

Charlie did not take much interest in the 
band. His mind was full of something else. 
Each day he talked with Joe about their 
proposed journey. Charlie said he could 
not go until after Mrs. Snowden left. The 
time set for her departure was Tuesday or 
Wednesday of the next week. 

“ As far off as that, Charlie ?” said Joe, 
with much disappointment. 

“Why, Joe, people always want a little 
time to get ready when they’re going on a 
long journey,” said Charlie. 

“ I don’t, Charlie.” 

“ What makes you in such a hurry, Joe ? 
Come, now ! you’re keeping something back. 
Ho secrets, Joe !” 

“Well,” said Joe, speaking with much 
hesitation, “ you know yesterday we saw 
Plum going out the gate when we thought 
all the boys had been gone ever so long?” 


CHINESE CUSTOMS. 


231 


“Yes; well?” 

“ He heard every word we said.” 

“ Oli, Joe ! Will he tell on us ?” 

“ Worse than that, Charlie ; he’s bent on 
going with us.” 

“ That isn’t worse,” said Charlie. “ We’ll 
let him. I tell you, Joe, there isn’t a pluck- 
ier feller in school than Nat Plumer. And 
he’s full of fun, too. I was afraid he was 
going to tell.” 

“ I’d have fixed that soon enough,” said 
Joe, “ but I don’t know how to fix this.” 

“ You mean his mother won’t like — ” Here 
Charlie stopped. 

Joe said nothing. 

“ Plum’s a determined fellow, and if he 
makes up his mind to go we can’t stop him,” 
said Charlie. 

“No, we can’t, that’s a fact. Here he 
comes now.” 

Nat Plumer walked up to the boys with 
a brisk, determined air. When he reached 
them he said not a word, but, thrusting his 
hand in his pocket, brought out a number 
of half-dollars and quarters and held them 
in his open hand. 


232 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“ Where did you get them, Plum ?” asked 
Joe. 

“ I earned them/’ said Nat Plumer proud- 
ly. “ Did you tell Charlie I was going 
along, Joe?” 

“ Yes.” 

“I wouldn’t, Plum; your mother won’t 
like it,” said Charlie. 

“ You leave that to me ; that’s all fixed.” 

“ Why, she isn’t willing ? You didn’t 
tell her?” asked both boys in surprise. 

“ Oh, pshaw ! what would I tell her for ? 
I’m going, boys; so that’s the end of it. 
When will you start ?” 

“ Next Wednesday,” said Charlie. 

“ I’d rather go to-morrow,” said Joe. 

“ So would I,” said Plum. 

“ It will be easier for me to get off next 
week,” said Charlie with all the dignity of 
a man of business. “ You see, boys,” he 
continued, “ I want to get all the informa- 
tion I can before we start.” 

The boys yielded unwillingly. Joe had 
hoped to get away with Charlie before Plum 
found it out, for Joe could not bear to think 
of Plum’s leaving his mother alone. To 


CHINESE CUSTOMS. 


233 


have a mother, Joe thought, must be the 
nicest thing in the world. Joe could not 
remember his mother. 

That evening Mrs. Snowden told them 
about some of the superstitions of the 
Chinese. She said they called a great 
many days “ unlucky.” Out of the three 
hundred and sixty-five days of the year, 
they pronounced one hundred and eighty 
of them unlucky. In all their plans they 
remember to avoid these days. There are 
also unlucky hours. 

When boys are three days old the parents 
make a feast to the god and goddess who 
are supposed to look after children, and who 
teach them to laugh and talk in their sleep. 
Two large and ten small bowls of rice and 
some bean-curd are offered, candles lit, in- 
cense and gold-paper burned. It is suppos- 
ed that a number of spirits wait to enter the 
body of a child. As only one can take pos- 
session, it is feared that the others will be 
offended. These offerings are to make peace 
with the angry spirits. 

When a boy is a month old his head is 
shaved. A lucky day is chosen for this, of 


234 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

course. A long silken thread is placed 
around the child’s neck during the opera- 
tion, to express long life. A silver circlet 
is then put around the neck, which is sup- 
posed to act as a charm. This is not taken 
off until the boy is sixteen years old. Poor 
boys wear silk circlets. At this time a feast 
is offered to the god of tranquillity. 

The next great day in the boy’s life is his 
first birthday. This is observed in different 
ways in different parts of China. At Hang- 
chow they place implements and tools before 
the child, and the article first seized by him 
is supposed to indicate the calling he will 
pursue. If he seizes a pen, he will be a 
writer; if a saw, a carpenter. On this 
birthday a feast is held for the spirits of 
the ancestors. If the child is not well, a 
small measure of rice is placed on his head 
and prayers said over it. 

When the boy reaches his third, sixth and 
ninth birthdays priests are called in to chant 
prayers and to make a cock pass seven times 
through a tub without a bottom. After this 
is done it is thought the child will pass safe- 
ly through all the perils of sickness. The 


CHINESE CUSTOMS. 


235 


priests make a good deal of money by these 
performances. 

If the child gets sick after all these pre- 
cautions, they consult the idols, cast lots to 
see what kind of medicine must be given, 
and sometimes the parents profess them- 
selves criminals in the sight of the idols, 
and vow to wear the clothes of a convict 
and have their hands manacled three times 
a year for three years. 

They have a great many foolish super- 
stitions about marriages. Two persons of 
the same family name are not allowed to 
marry. Mr. Brown could never marry 
Miss Brown, even though they were not 
in the least related. It is considered very 
fortunate to have one year’s difference in 
the age of bride and groom. Two years 
are not bad, three years are not very good : 
but six years’ difference always brings mis- 
fortunes. 

Every one in China has the sign of an 
animal, which marks the year in which 
the person was born. These are — the 
mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, serpent, horse, 
sheep, monkey, fowl, dog and pig. If the 


236 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


bride has the sign of the mouse and the 
groom the cow, the marriage is allowed. 
But if the groom happens to have the 
sign of a horse, they are forbidden to 
marry. And in this foolish way they de- 
cide between all the signs. When a young 
man wishes to marry, the name and the sign 
of the young lady desired are written upon a 
slip of paper and placed before the kitchen 
god. If no quarrel takes place in the fam- 
ily, and no crockery or other valuables break, 
the marriage will be fortunate. 

When the bride’s chair is carried through 
the streets it is considered unlucky for any 
one to stand in front and look in. The bride 
is not allowed to touch the ground in going 
to the chair ; a brother carries her to it, or 
else the way is strewn with rice-bags, lest 
she should carry away on the sole of her 
foot the luck of her mother’s house. Two 
candles are lighted in the room which she is 
to occupy in her husband’s house. They must 
on no account be put out. If they burn out 
together, it is a good sign ; husband and wife 
will then both live long together, and one 
will not outlive the other. 



Chinese Gentleman 


Page 237 





































































* M 




* 1 . 






























CHINESE CUSTOMS. 


237 


The children were very much interested. 
Charlie and Maggie did not get sleepy, and 
their mother forgot their bed-hour. I can- 
not begin to tell you all they talked about. 
Mrs. Snowden answered their questions very 
patiently, and told them of all the curious 
customs she could recall. She reminded 
them that the same customs did not prevail 
through all the vast country of China ; in 
the northern part many things were very 
different from the customs of Ningpo. But 
she of course knew a good deal about North- 
ern China, and so she told them about what 
she had read and heard. 

Stephen asked about the beds of the mis- 
sionaries in China, and Mrs. Snowden replied 
that they carried thin mattresses with them 
on their preaching-tours. Mr. Snowden 
generally had three men with him when 
he went to the villages to preach. Two 
carried his sedan ; the other carried his 
bed. “The beds are very hard,” she said. 
“ Up in the north they sleep on hangs!' 1 

“ Kangs !” said Clara ; “ what are they ?” 

“ The kang is a platform of mason-work 
about two feet high ; sometimes it is as large 


238 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

as an ordinary bedstead, and sometimes it is 
about twelve feet long and six wide. They 
build fires underneath them, and the natives 
sleep very comfortably upon them, though 
the heat is very unpleasant to those who are 
not used to it.” 

“ Why, that is like Siberia in Mr. Pum- 
pelly’s book,” said Josie. — “ Don’t you re- 
member, Stephen ?” 

“This is up in the cold part of China, 
you know,” said Mrs. Snowden. “The na- 
tives put on thick wadded clothes in such 
quantity that it makes them look like walk- 
ing feather beds.” 

This made Maggie and Clara laugh 
heartily. 

“ And they use many foot-stoves and 
hand-stoves. Fuel is scarce, and the na- 
tives gather grass and roots to use for their 
fires — straw too. If you were traveling in 
China, you would see little girls like Maggie 
sitting on the floor thrusting straw into the 
kang-ovens, a little at a time.” 

“ What queer people they are !” exclaimed 
Clara. 

“ They’re always doing queer things,” said 


CHINESE CUSTOMS. 


239 


Stephen. “ Don’t you remember Mr. Davis 
in his story told how the peojde acted over 
an eclipse of the moon ?” 

“ Yes, of course we do,” answered Charlie. 
“ They sounded gongs and beat drums and 
fired fire-crackers by thousands. I’d like 
to have been there.” 

“And how frightened the people were 
as they watched the shadow creep over the 
moon !” said Josie. 

“They thought a great beast was trying 
to swallow the moon,” said Maggie. 

“ And they kept up the noise after it grew 
dark,” said Charlie, “ because they hoped the 
monster would give back the moon — spit it 
out, I suppose.” 

“ And he did,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ Why, father, you know it wasn’t that 
at all,” said Maggie. 

“ No?” said her father with a curious look. 
“ What was it?” 

“Why, you know very well it was the 
shadow of the earth passing between the sun 
and the moon.” 

“ I didn’t suppose you knew,” said Ste- 
phen. 


240 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Well, you see, I did. So there, Mr. 
Stephen !” 

“ The people believe evil is at hand when 
the moon is eclipsed, and they bring offer- 
ings to their god to turn away their anger,” 
said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ All these offerings must make a heavy 
tax for the poor,” remarked Mrs. Arnold. 

“They do, Mrs. Arnold. I read in our 
last magazine that the poor women in Soo- 
chow spent from three to five dollars a year 
in offerings of incense, candles and paper- 
money.” 

“ That is not much. Do you think it is ?” 
said Josie. 

“ Yes, it is a good deal for them. Rich 
ladies spend perhaps thirty or forty dollars 
in the same way ; I mean they spend this 
in their visits to the temples. This does not 
include what they spend at weddings, burials, 
yearly feasts and in worship at graves. They 
waste a great deal also on fortune-tellers.” 

“ How foolish !” exclaimed Maggie. 

“ You’d do it too if you’d been born there,” 
said Stephen. 

This made Maggie thoughtful. Then she 


CHINESE CUSTOMS. 


241 


said in a low tone, “ I’d like to go and tell 
them how foolish it is.” 

Maggie looked very pretty as she said this. 
Her mother looked at her and said, “ I hope 
you will go, Maggie.” 

I think the Lord Jesus looked down upon 
the little girl, and loved her for her loving 
heart. 

Mrs. Snowden said she had read of a 
great temple in Soochow which came in a 
night. The story was, that hundreds and 
hundreds of years ago the people woke one 
morning to find a grand temple standing 
where the evening before there was only 
grass. In the temple was the image of the 
goddess of mercy. She had brought this 
temple across the ocean in the stillness of 
the night. When the missionary lady to 
whom the story was told expressed her 
doubt of it, the heathen woman who told 
it said, “You foreigners expect us to believe 
the strange tales you tell us ; you ought to 
believe our tales.” 

Mrs. Snowden told Josie how small the 
earnings of the Soochow women were. “ You 
thought,” she said, “that three or four dol- 
16 


242 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


lars was a small sum for a poor woman to 
spend in the temples. But many of them 
earn only twenty cents a day, and the sew- 
ing-women earn not more than fifteen cents 
a day for beautiful embroidery. A poor 
kind of embroidery brings only six cents. 
You can see these needle-women sitting at 
the street-corners working at their embroi- 
deries. They are very poorly clad.” 

“ I should think they would be,” said 
Josie, “if that is all they earn.” 

Mrs. Snowden said they would see toys 
which they would naturally think were 
really for playthings. But they were in- 
tended for the spirits in the other world. 

“ How do they get them to the spirits ?” 
Charlie asked. 

“ By burning them. If a boy is taken 
sick, they think perhaps the spirit is offend- 
ed because the parents have not provided a 
house for this spirit. So they buy a paper 
house — what you would think was a toy — 
and they burn it up. Or if they think the 
spirit wants a ship, they buy and burn that.” 

Clara went home full of new thoughts. 
I hope she will be a missionary. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 

C HARLIE and Maggie saw no reason to 
change their opinion of little Eddie. 
They were talking about him excitedly on 
Friday morning when their mother came 
into the breakfast-room. 

“ Mother/’ said Maggie, “ you ought to 
have seen him this morning when Jane was 
dressing him ! He threw Mrs. Snowden’s 
boots out of the window, and kicked Jane, 
and threw the soap at the cat, and — Moth- 
er, I wish you had kept him when he was a 
baby, and then we might have made a good 
boy of him.” 

“ Don’t you think we can do it now?” 
asked Mrs. Arnold with a smile. 

“ I guess so, mother, if we pray over him,” 
replied Maggie very soberly. 


243 


244 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“You do pray for him, Maggie, don’t 
you ?” 

“ Yes, mother, but it doesn’t seem to come ; 
I mean, he don’t get cured of his awful tem- 
per. And I pray every night to God to take 
away his awful temper.” 

And Maggie laid great emphasis upon the 
word “awful.” 

“ You wouldn’t stop, would you, mother ?” 

“ Oh no ; keep on praying,” said her 
mother, kissing Maggie as she spoke. 

Just then Mr. Arnold and Mrs. Snowden 
came in from a short walk. Mr. Arnold 
thought a little walk before breakfast might 
give Mrs. Snowden a better appetite, and be- 
cause she was out Jane had to dress Eddie. 
Mrs. Snowden always dressed and undressed 
him, and Eddie was very angry at being 
left this morning in Jane’s care. 

As they sat down to breakfast Mr. Arnold 
continued his conversation with Mrs. Snow- 
den by saying, “ You were speaking of the 
nuns going on errands of mercy — ” 

“ Nuns in China ?” said Josie. 

“ There are nuns and monks and priests in 
China. The nuns dress almost exactly like 


MRS SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 245 

the priests — wear the same kind of heavy 
shoes, and shave their heads in the same 
way,” said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ That sounds like the Roman Catholics,” 
said Stephen. 

“ Yes ; the religions are the same in some 
respects,” said Mrs. Snowden. “They say 
masses for the souls of the dead, and burn 
candles and incense. They observe fasts, 
and in many things remind us of the Rom- 
anists. Our last magazine from China has 
a letter from Soochow containing an account 
of the sealing of a nun.” 

“ Sealing a nun !” exclaimed Maggie. 
“ What does that mean ?” 

“ She was imprisoned in the nunnery for 
three years; she could not come out in all 
that time. Food was passed in through a 
little window. The poor creature was ex- 
pected to spend all her time in saying 
prayers.” 

“ How dreadful I” exclaimed Josie. 

“ Couldn’t she crawl out of the window 
when nobody was looking ?” asked Charlie. 

“ She wouldn’t dare do that,” said Maggie. 

“ I bet she did,” said Charlie. 


246 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ I rather think Charlie is right about her 
getting out sometimes,” said Mrs. Snowden ; 
“for when the missionary lady who wrote 
this letter expressed her sympathy to her 
native teacher he said, ‘ What ! do you 
really think she was shut in there all the 
while? You know there was a window/ 
he said, ‘ and the wall of the court was low.’ 
So the missionary found she had been wast- 
ing some of her sympathy.” 

“ I wouldn’t want to be shut in there at 
all,” said Maggie. 

“ But it isn’t so bad if you can crawl out 
every night,” said Stephen. 

“They have a great deal of ceremony 
when the three years are ended,” said 
Mrs. Snowden. “But you must read this 
Soochow letter for yourselves. The nun is 
not at all attractive-looking as she steps 
out in her untidy gown.” 

“ We must read these magazines at our 
missionary meetings,” said Mrs. Arnold. 

“ Yes ; and you will have the Woman's 
Work for Woman next month. You said 
you had sent on for it.” 

“ Mrs. Arnold,” continued Mrs. Snowden, 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 


247 


“ there was another letter from Soochow in 
The Missionary Link. It spoke of a house 
of correction for women — a dreadful place, 
where the women crouched on the mud floor 
and the air was stifling.” 

“ I wish somebody would treat the men 
as they treat the women !” cried Josie in- 
dignantly. 

“They don’t know the Golden Rule,” 
said Maggie. 

“Let me give you a rule made long ago 
by one of their wise men — Confucius : ‘ Do 
not to others what you would not have others 
do to you.” 

“ Oh,” said Maggie, “ he didn’t make that 
up; he got it out of the Bible.” 

“ Confucius never saw a Bible, Maggie.” 

“Didn’t he?” said Maggie with surprise. 

“ ‘ What do the Scriptures principally 
teach ?’ ” asked Mr. Arnold. 

Josie answered, “ ‘ The Scriptures princi- 
pally teach what man is to believe concern- 
ing God, and what duty God requires of 
man.” 

“ And did Confucius know all this without 
the Bible ?” asked Stephen. 


248 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


44 He did not know 4 all this/ ” replied 
his father; 44 he did not know all we know. 
Yet he taught many excellent things.” 

44 1 should like to know what the Chinese 
hoys play,” said Charlie, who did not want 
the Catechism introduced at this time. 

44 said Maggie, 44 would like to know if 
the girls play with dolls.” 

44 Why, yes, Maggie,” said Josie, 44 don’t 
you remember?” 

44 They worship dolls in Japan,” said Mrs. 
Arnold. 

Mr. Arnold asked Mrs. Snowden if ances- 
tors were worshiped all over China, and she 
replied, 44 Yes.” 

44 I’d be ’most willing to worship grand- 
mother,” whispered Maggie to Josie, 44 she’s 
so nice and she thought it would be easier 
to worship a good grandmother than an ugly 
idol. 

44 I’d rather worship great men like Co- 
lumbus or William of Orange,” said Ste- 
phen* who overheard Maggie’s whisper. 

44 And I would rather worship the living 
and true God,” said Mrs. Arnold. 

Mr. Arnold asked Charlie to repeat the 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 249 

first commandment; and when Charlie re- 
cited, “ Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me,” and Maggie said, “ Do they really like 
their ugly idols best ?” her father reminded 
her that they knew nothing about God. 

“ ‘ What is required in the first command- 
ment V ” asked Mr. Arnold ; “ that is, what 
does the first commandment lay upon us to 
do ?” and Mr. Arnold looked at Maggie as 
he spoke. 

Stephen answered the question, saying, 
“‘The first commandment requires us to 
know and acknowledge God to be the 
only true God, and our God, and to wor- 
ship and glorify him accordingly/ ” 

“Now what is forbidden in the first com- 
mandment, Stephen ?” 

“ ‘ The first commandment forbiddeth the 
denying, or not worshiping and glorifying, 
the true God as God, and our God, and 
the giving of that worship and glory 
to any other which is due to him alone.’” 

Stephen recited slowly and distinctly, as 
if he were thinking about what he was say- 
ing. After he finished no one spoke for a 
moment, and then Maggie said, “ I should 


250 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


think it would make God very angry to 
have them turn away from him and pray 
to idols.” 

“ ‘ What are we specially taught by these 
words, “ before me,” in the first command- 
ment ?’ ” asked Mrs. Snowden, without re- 
plying to Maggie. 

Josie answered this time : “ ‘ These words, 
“ before me,” in the first commandment, 
teach us, that God, who seeth all things, 
taketh notice of, and is much displeased 
with, the sin of having any other God.’ ” 

“ You see, Maggie, God takes notice of 
it, and it displeases him when any one or 
anything takes his place in our hearts,” said 
Mrs. Snowden. 

“ There are idol-worshipers at heart in our 
own land, my daughter,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ Where, father ?” asked Maggie in sur- 
prise. 

“ Anything or anybody we love more than 
God we make our idol,” answered Mr. 
Arnold. 

“ Mr. Coles makes an idol of that elegant 
black horse of his,” said Charlie. 

“ Oh, Charlie !” exclaimed Maggie. 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 


251 


“ I tell you he does/’ said Charlie. “ He 
goes out driving instead of going to church ; 
and he goes up to the Park just to show his 
horse.” 

“ I hope Elsie don’t make an idol of her 
Eloise,” said Maggie. 

Josie laughed at this, and Charlie said, 
“ Pshaw !” 

“ The book-worship of the Chinese is some- 
thing peculiar,” said Mr Arnold, who wished 
to turn the conversation from Mr. Coles. 

“ Father calls Josie a ‘ book- worshiper/ ” 
said Stephen. 

“ What is their book - worship ?” asked 
Josie. 

“ There is a class of women who are sup- 
posed to be very religious. The worshiper 
opens a sacred Buddhist book, and placing 
it before her, points to a character, and then 
kneels and knocks her head on the ground, 
just as if she were kneeling before an idol.” 

“ Not a very entertaining mode of using 
books,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ Especially as the woman does not under- 
stand a single character,” remarked Mrs. 
Snowden. 


252 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“ Doesn’t she ?” asked Charlie in surprise. 

“ No, not one, Charlie.” 

“ I thought it was the second command- 
ment that forbids idols,” said Maggie, who 
had been lost in thought for a few moments. 

“ So it does,” replied her father. “ Can 
you repeat it?” 

“ It’s awful long, father.” 

“ No matter ; try it.” 

Maggie tried, and repeated the whole 
commandment : “ Thou shalt not make 

unto thee any graven image, or any like- 
ness of any thing that is in heaven above, 
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in 
the water under the earth : thou thalt not 
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them : 
for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, 
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children unto the third and fourth generation 
of them that hate me ; and shewing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love me, and 
keep my commadments.” 

“ Mercy to them that keep the command- 
ments,” said Mrs. Arnold. “ You see, it is 
not enough to lcnow them ; you must keep 
them if you want God’s blessing.” 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 253 

Mr. Arnold was pleased to hear Maggie 
recite this long commandment correctly. 
He asked Josie the next question. It was, 
“ What is forbidden in the second command- 
ment ?” 

Josie answered, “ ‘ The second command- 
ment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by 
images, or in any other way not appointed in 
his word/ ” 

“ I begin to understand the Catechism 
even when you don’t stop to explain it, 
father,” said Maggie with a contented smile. 

“ That is because you think about it more, 
and try to understand it. And if we come 
to any word you do not know you must stop 
us and ask what it means.” 

“ You left out, ‘ What is required in the 
second commandment?’ father,” said Josie. 

Her father answered it himself, saying 
slowly, “ ‘ The second commandment requireth 
the receiving, observing and keeping pure 
and entire all such religious worship and 
ordinances as God hath appointed in his 
word.’ ” 

“ That’s a hard one,” said Maggie. 

“ Shall I put it in easier language ?” 


254 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Yes, father.” 

“We are to worship God exactly as the 
Bible tells us.” 

“ But these heathens have no Bibles,” 
said Maggie. “ They can’t keep the com- 
mandments, because they don’t know them.” 

“ True enough, Maggie,” said Mrs. Snow- 
den. 

“ They break both these, don’t they, Mrs. 
Snowden ?” 

“ Yes, Maggie, and all the rest.” 

“ ‘ All the rest ’ ! Why, how ?” ex- 
claimed Maggie. 

“ I could not tell you of all their wicked- 
ness.” 

“ How many do you think you have bro- 
ken, Maggie ?” asked her mother. 

“ None, I guess, mother — have I ?” 

“ I will not answer you now, Maggie ; 
watch and see for yourself.” 

“ One more Catechism question,” said 
Mr. Arnold, “ and I’ll ask no more to-day : 
‘ What are the reasons annexed to the second 
commandment ?’ ” 

“ ‘ Annexed ’ !” said Maggie. “ I know 
what that means; that’s a building.” 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 


255 


You see, Maggie had been to Philadelphia 
to see the great Centennial Exhibition. 

“ It don’t mean the Art Annex or any of 
that kind of annexes,” said Stephen. 

“ No,” said Mr. Arnold, “ but that will 
help you to understand it. The Annex was 
an addition connected with the Art Build- 
ing, in order better to exhibit the art-treas- 
ures, that came in larger numbers than were 
at first expected.” 

“ Yes,” said Josie, “I see. There are a 
great many reasons connected with the com- 
mandment why we should keep it.” 

“ God requires us to keep it,” said Mr. 
Arnold, “ and he forbids us to break it ; and 
then he gives some grand reasons why we 
should keep it. What are these reasons, 
Josie ?” 

And Josie repeated slowly and reverently, 
just as her father liked to hear her repeat, 
“ ‘ The reasons annexed to the second com- 
mandment are, God’s sovereignty over us, 
his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to 
his own worship.’ ” 

“ I don’t understand that,” said Maggie. 

“ There are annexes built to all the com- 


256 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


mandments,” exclaimed Charlie; “ aren’t 
there ?” 

“What do you mean, Charlie?” inquired 
his mother. 

“ Why, it says after every one, ‘ What is 
the reason annexed V ” replied Charlie. 

“ Come into this annex,” said Mr. Ar- 
nold ; “ I want to make it plain for Maggie.” 

Eddie, who had been quietly brought to the 
breakfast- table by Jane, had not uttered a 
word during all this conversation. There 
was a pout on his lips and a sullen look in 
his eyes. Mrs. Snowden thought he had 
been crying, but she asked no questions. As 
she expected soon to leave him, she thought 
it was time now to give up entirely the care 
of him ; and that was one reason why she 
went out walking with Mr. Arnold and left 
Jane to dress him. 

They were all very much interested in 
the conversation, and hardly any notice had 
been taken of Eddie since the meal began. 
As Mr. Arnold said, “ Come into the annex, 
I want to make it plain for Maggie,” he put 
on Eddie’s plate something the child did not 
like. Eddie was in a bad humor when he 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 


257 


came to the table, but he had not dared utter 
a sound, because Charlie had privately threat- 
ened to keep all the playthings locked up 
if he did not behave himself. Charlie 
thought it was time to take “ the young 
heathen ” in hand and discipline him. 
Charlie called Eddie “ the young heathen ” 
every time he was provoked with him. 

Eddie scowled at his plate, and then, put- 
ting his hands against the table, leaned back 
in his high chair and pushed with all his 
strength. The table did not move, but over 
went the chair, and “ the young heathen ” 
sent up a wonderful howl as he landed upon 
the floor. Every one jumped up to catch 
him except Charlie, who, I am sorry to say, 
was rather pleased to see him go over. Mrs. 
Snowden carried him out of the room, and 
the Catechism annex was forgotten until the 
family met at the dinner-table. 

“ Mag, I gave that young heathen a talk- 
ing to,” said Charlie when he met Maggie. 

“ I don’t believe mother would like to 
have you call him a ‘ young heathen,’ ” 
said Maggie. 

17 


258 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“I don’t suppose she’d like the way I 
talked to him, either,” said Charlie. “ But 
it’ll do him good, now I tell you; it’s just 
what he needed.” 

“ What did you say, Charlie?” 

“ I told him I’d lock up the plaything 
closet ; and I did, and carried the key in 
my pocket to school. He knows why. If he 
gets into another tantrum I’ll do it again,” 
said Charlie in a decided tone. 

“ I hope it will do him good,” replied 
Maggie soberly. “ Why don’t you pray for 
him?” 

“ Because I like this way best. Don’t tell 
mother and father. You can pray for him 
if you like ; maybe we’ll fetch him between 
us. I don’t see why father and mother don’t 
train him ; I’m sick of his tantrums.” 

“I heard mother talking with father about 
him, and she said when Mrs. Snowden went 
away she was going to begin to punish him.” 

<4 I’ll take my turn now, Mag,” said Char- 
lie. “ I told him he didn’t belong here, any- 
way, and if he didn’t behave himself he’d 
have to go back all alone.” 

“ I don’t believe he understood you,” said 


MRS. SNOWDEN’S LAST DAY. 259 

Maggie ; “ I hope he didn’t, anyway, because 
I think that’s -real mean, when he’s so far 
from home and we’re almost strangers to 
him.” 

“ Maybe it was mean, Mag. I guess 
I’ll go and unlock the plaything closet.” 

Before Charlie left the house he overheard 
Mrs. Snowden tell his mother that she was 
going to change her plans and leave on Sat- 
urday. This she did for the sake of com- 
pany. Mr. Arnold was going away on Sat- 
urday, and she could travel part of the way 
with him. 

Charlie had not heard about his father’s 
proposed journey, and he wanted to go back 
and ask his mother about it. But he felt 
too guilty to do so. He could not trust him- 
self to ask any questions. He hurried to 
school, and told Joe and Nat that Mrs. 
Snowden was going the next day. They 
were delighted. Nat told Charlie to be 
sure and remember to get his allowance 
before his father went away. 

There was a great deal of whispering and 
planning between these three boys all day ; 
and when evening came Charlie thought 


260 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


their arrangements were perfect, and he 
tried to feel very happy over it. But, 
to tell the truth, this boy was already 
feeling very uncomfortable and unhappy. 
He could hardly eat any dinner, though 
he tried hard. 

I forgot to tell you that what he over- 
heard Mrs. Snowden say about her de- 
parture made him forget to unlock the 
playthings, and he went to school, with 
the key in his pocket. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

IN THE ANNEX. 

T HE sight of Eddie in his arm-chair at 
the dinner-table reminded them of the 
scene at breakfast ; and Mr. Arnold, as 
he kissed Eddie, said, “ How is my little 
boy ?” 

“ Not very happy yet,” replied Mrs. Ar- 
nold. “ Somebody mislaid the key of the 
play-room, and it has been hard work to 
amuse him all the morning.” 

“ We’ll have a nice drive this afternoon, 
Eddie,” said Mr. Arnold cheerily, “ and you 
may hold the reins.” 

“ May I go, father ?” asked Charlie. 

“ May I go ?” asked Maggie. 

“ Now, that is a hard matter to decide. — 
The carriage will be here by three o’clock, 
ladies; will that suit?” 

Both Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Snowden 


261 


262 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


seemed pleased with this arrangement, 
and Eddied good-humor came back when 
Maggie talked to him about the horses. 

“ Father,” said Stephen, “ we didn’t get 
into the annex this morning.” 

“ Eddie went in head first,” said Charlie. 

“ And the rest of us scampered out,” 
added Stephen. 

“ We will try it again.” said Mr. Arnold. 

Jane was such a good waitress that it was 
easy to hold quiet conversation at the 
table. She handed things from one to 
another in what Maggie called “a softly 
way.” 

“ ‘ The reasons annexed to the second com- 
mandment,” ’ said Mr. Arnold, “ ‘ are God’s 
sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and 
the zeal he hath for his own worship.’ We 
will try to explain it.” 

“ 4 Propriety in us ’ ?” said Maggie — “ big 
word !” 

First ‘ sovereignty,’ Maggie,” said her 
father. 

“ Yes,” said Maggie soberly. 

“ ‘ Sovereignty over us ’ means great pow- 
er over us as our king or sovereign ; ‘ pro- 


IN THE ANNEX. 


263 


priety ’ means property : God owns us. 
4 The Lord’s portion is liis people;’ we 
belong to him. So, you see, because of 
God’s rightful power over us, his proper- 
ty, we ought to serve him, and him alone,” 
said Mr. Arnold. 

“ And there is another reason for giving 
God our first and best,” said Mr. Arnold 
after a pause ; “ it is the zeal he hath to 
his own worship. God is a jealous God.” 

44 Father,” said Maggie, interrupting him, 
44 1 don’t think it sounds quite right to call 
God jealous. — Do you, mother?” she asked, 
looking at Mrs. Arnold as she spoke. 

44 He calls himself 4 a jealous God,”’ re- 
plied her mother. 

44 Does he? Why, mother,” said Maggie, 
44 1 thought it wasn’t nice to be jealous ? You 
told me not to be jealous when Elsie’s cousin 
came and I thought Elsie loved her more 
than she did me.” 

44 So I did, Maggie.” 

44 Isn’t it wicked to be jealous, mamma?” 

44 Sometimes, Maggie, you ask hard ques- 
tions; I mean, it is hard for me to make 
some things plain to you, but I will try.” 


264 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Yes, do, mother/ ’ 

“ Your father can do it better,” said Mrs. 
Arnold, looking at her husband as she spoke ; 
but Mr. Arnold only smiled and shook his 
head. 

“ To be jealous may mean to be filled with 
a strong desire for something or strong fear 
of something. You feared Elsie’s cousin 
might get more love than you.” 

“That was wrong,” said Stephen. 

“ It was natural,” said Mr. Arnold. 

“ I wouldn’t have cared,” said Charlie. 

“ Well, I did ; so there !” exclaimed 
Maggie. 

“ God’s jealousy is a strong desire for our 
well-being and a concern for his own char- 
acter and government,” said Mrs. Arnold. 

“And that isn’t wrong, is it?” inquired 
Charlie. 

“ Oh no, of course not, Charlie,” replied 
his mother. 

“ Paul called his jealousy ‘ a godly jeal- 
ousy,”’ said Mr. Arnold. 

“ What was he jealous about ?” asked 
Josie. 

“ He was afraid Christ was not having the 


IN THE ANNEX. 


265 


first place in the hearts of the Corinthian 
Christians,” answered her father. 

“ tlealousy and envy aren’t quite alike, are 
they?” asked Josie. 

Mrs. Snowden answered this question by 
saying, “ We are jealous before we quite lose 
a good, and we are envious when it is ob- 
tained by another.” 

“ Then Maggie was jealous when she 
heard Maude was coming to spend a week 
with Elsie, and envious after Maude came ; 
for Elsie did. like Maude best, and no mis- 
take,” said Charlie. 

Maggie was not very well pleased with 
Charlie’s speech. She was about to make 
an angry reply, when she happened to meet 
her father’s eyes looking pleasantly upon her. 
His look seemed to take away the little ugly 
feeling that was rising, and she only said, 
“ Elsie’s all right now.” 

“ Charlie, I am going away to-morrow,” 
said Mrs. Snowden. 

The color came quickly into Charlie’s 
face ; he blushed, and was so embarrassed 
that he could not speak a word. His 
father and mother thought he was sorry 


266 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Mrs. Snowden was going. What a mistake 
that was ! Charlie had to spend the evening 
very quietly at home, listening, or trying to 
listen, to the missionary’s stories. The others 
had persuaded Mrs. Snowden to do all her 
packing before tea, so that they could have 
her with them all the evening — “to tell 
everything she had forgotten to tell be- 
fore,” Maggie said. 

Josie and Stephen studied their lessons in 
the afternoon, so that they could enjoy the 
evening, and Mr. Arnold soon laid aside his 
paper, preparing to listen to all Mrs. Snow- 
den had to say. 

I came near forgetting to tell you that at 
the tea-table they talked again about the 
annex to the second commandment, and Mr. 
Arnold said, “ I was thinking this afternoon 
how jealous mother and I would feel if our 
children loved Judge Green best.” 

“ Envious, wouldn’t it be?” asked Stephen. 

“ Yes,” said Mr. Arnold. “ I’m jealoui 
now thinking about it ; I would be envious, 
if it came to pass.” 

“ And you won’t ever have a chance to 
feel envious, because the love won’t pass over 


IN THE ANNEX. 


267 


to him,” said Stephen, who had not forgot- 
ten what Mrs. Snowden had said was the 
difference between jealousy and envy. 

“No danger of our loving Mrs. Green 
best,” cried Charlie. 

“ No, no,” said Maggie ; “ we don’t like 
her a bit.” 

“ Children, remember your heavenly Fa- 
ther asks for, and has the first right to, your 
love and your services,” said Mr. Arnold. 
“ He deserves your love, and wants it.” 

Then they quietly rose from the table 
and went into the parlor, each one thinking 
about the heavenly Father. 

Charlie felt mean and uncomfortable. He 
could hardly keep from crying when he 
thought this was his last evening at home. 
Would he ever come back ? Perhaps he would 
be shipwrecked ; perhaps get sick and die 
among strangers, with no mother to watch 
over and wait upon him. “ That would be 
hard on Plum,” thought Charlie ; “ he’s a 
mother-baby.” But Charlie felt like one 
himself that evening. He wished sometimes 
that he had never planned to go away. 

Soon they all were talking pleasantly, and 


268 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Charlie tried not to think about the next 
day and the grand journey he was going to 
make round the world. 

“ I don’t know where to begin to-night,” 
said Mrs. Snowden, “nor what you most want 
to hear about.” 

The family group was a pleasant one to 
look upon. Mrs. Arnold, as usual, sat by 
the table with her sewing ; she was the only 
busy one in the party. Mr. Arnold was in 
his easy-chair, slippers on his feet, and, for 
a wonder, no newspaper in his hand. Mrs. 
Snowden sat on the sofa, with Josie on one side 
of her and Maggie on the other. Charlie 
generally took the place Josie occupied, but 
this evening he tried all the different chairs, 
and seemed to find no place to suit him. 
Stephen sat near the sofa, next to his mother. 
Eddie had been taken by Jane to bed. 

“ Father, if you are jealous or envious I’ll 
come and sit on your lap,” said Maggie. 

This made them all laugh, and her father 
said, “ No ; Mrs. Snowden can have you to- 
night.” 

“It’s her last night, you know,” said 
Maggie. 


JN THE ANNEX. 


269 


' “ Come, Charlie, settle down,” said Ste- 
phen ; “ we want to begin.” 

Charlie lay down on the rug. His mother 
told him if he was tired he must go to bed, 
and then he got up and took a seat. 

“ Now, ask me questions, one at a time, 
and I will try to answer,” said Mrs. Snowden. 

“ Tell us some more about the girls,” said 
Maggie. 

“ What kind of manners have they ?” ask- 
ed Mrs. Arnold, looking slyly at Maggie as 
she spoke. Maggie understood the look, 
and straightened herself into a better po- 
sition. 

A ring at the door-bell, and callers were 
announced. This was a great disappoint- 
ment to Maggie, but it was a relief to Char- 
lie, who slipped slyly out of the room and 
went up stairs to make preparations for his 
journey. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


CHARLIE’S PLANS. 

T HE plan formed by the boys was that 
they should all meet at the depot after 
the early train had carried off Mrs. Snow- 
den. Charlie expected to go down with his 
father to bid Mrs. Snowden good-bye. 

Joe Brown had a happy thought about 
Charlie’s baggage, for of course he could 
not carry it to the depot with him. Joe’s 
old grandparents always went to bed early. 
Joe said after they were asleep he would 
steal out and come under Charlie’s window, 
and Charlie must have the satchel there 
ready for him to take. Then Joe would 
carry both his and Charlie’s to the depot 
the next morning. 

Nat Plumer was going to march out of 
the house with his bag, as any gentleman 
might go traveling ; Mrs. Plumer had been 
called away by the sickness of a sister. 

270 


CHARLIE'S PLANS. 


271 


Everything seemed to fit in nicely. Mr. 
Arnold could not possibly transact his busi- 
ness and get home the same day. It would 
probably be Monday afternoon before he re- 
turned. Charlie was sure this would give 
him time to get beyond pursuit. 

When Charlie left the parlor he hurried 
softly up to his bedroom, and, groping in 
the dark, he drew from under the bed a 
satchel with a stout piece of twine tied to 
the handle. After putting his allowance in 
it, he went to the window and lowered the 
bag, first peering out into the darkness to 
see if any one were near. 

When about halfway down the string 
slipped from his hand, and the bag fell with 
a thud that sounded very loud in Charlie’s 
ears. He started back from the window, 
knocking over a chair as he did so, and 
in great alarm crawled into the bed and 
waited anxiously to see if any of the fam- 
ily would come up. 

Nobody came. 

When the bag fell it aroused only one 
person, and that one was not in the house. 


272 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


It was a worthless fellow who had nothing 
better to do than to prowl around at night. 
He saw the front door open when Mrs. Ar- 
nold’s visitors came in, and the bright, pleas- 
ant light that streamed from the open door 
seemed to chain him to the spot. He lin- 
gered near. Poor fellow ! what would he 
not give for a home like that ? The nights 
were getting damp and cold ; there was 
no moon to-night. Should he go home? 
What was his home to him ? A miserable 
shanty, without a bit of comfort or beauty. 
No, he would hang on the fence a while ; 
maybe the music would begin soon. Poor 
Joe often listened outside while the Arnolds 
sang and played. 

He heard steps in the darkness, and quick 
as a flash he leaped the fence. He crept 
around to the back of the house just as 
Charlie’s bag fell to the ground. It made 
him jump, but he did not run away, and as 
soon as all was still he came up and laid 
his hands on the bag. When he found out 
what it was he ran as fast as he could, bag 
in hand, and never stopped until he was safe- 
ly in the old shanty he called “ home.” 


CHARLIE'S PLANS. 


273 


The shanty was empty, and Joe sat down, 
breathing very hard, and holding on to the 
bag with both hands, as if he expected some 
one to snatch it from him. After he was 
rested and composed he got up and looked at 
the door-lock, as if expecting to find a key to 
turn, but the rusty old lock hung by only 
two screws, and the key had long been lost. 

Joe set a chair against the door and sat 
down upon it, still holding the bag. A log 
burned on the hearth. The room had evi- 
dently been occupied that evening, for a 
half-burned candle stood on the table, and 
the remains of supper could be seen. The 
candle was not lighted, but the firelight 
showed dimly the contents of the room. 

Joe pulled at the bag ; it was locked. He 
went to an old box standing in one corner 
and fumbled there until he found several 
old keys. One of these served to unlock 
the bag. Joe drew forth slowly all the ar- 
ticles of clothing. Charlie’s best suit was 
crumpled considerably, for packing was 
new business for Charlie, but Joe thought 
he had never felt such fine, soft cloth. 
The handkerchiefs and stockings he exam- 
18 


274 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ined carefully, and looked admiringly at the 
little neck-bows. A fifty-cent piece fell out 
of the paper that held the neck-ties. “ What 
does it all mean ?” thought Joe. “ Is that 
little boy of Arnold’s going to run away ? 
It can’t be he don’t want to stay any longer 
in that beautiful house of his, can it ? Bet if 
I once got quartered there I wouldn’t want 
to go no farther. Holla ! here’s a Bible, I 
do believe. That looks good, now. Maybe 
his mother put that in. Oh no, I guess not ; 
his mother never knows a bit about this, 
you bet. I’ve a great mind to go tell her.” 

Joe thought it over awhile, holding the 
Bible and turning carefully over the leaves. 
He could hardly read a word. Then he 
examined again every article of clothing. 
The last garment was out of the bag, and 
nothing remained but six apples, a paper 
of candy and two doughnuts. Joe ate the 
doughnuts, and put the candy and apples 
back in the bag. The half-dollar he looked 
at for some time. He had never before had 
so much money in his possession, and he did 
not know exactly how to spend it. He put 
the money into his pocket and carried the 


CHARLIE’S PLANS. 


275 


bag up the ladder into his sleeping-hole. 
I cannot call the low “ cubby ” a room. 
Joe always called it his “cubby.” The 
bag had been three nights under Charlie’s 
bed, packed and the string tied on. Joe 
could not put it under his bed, because his 
bed was on the floor. He knew no one ever 
crawled up that ladder but himself, and his 
treasure would be perfectly safe. 

“Mean they won’t fit me; I wish they 
would. I’d like to see myself dressed up 
fine for once. Guess I’ll buy oranges with 
that money.” 

Joe stretched himself out, and was soon 
asleep, dreaming that he was dressed up in 
Charlie’s clothes. They were too tight to be 
comfortable, and Joe did not enjoy the sport 
he dreamt the street-boys were having over 
his pantaloons that hardly reached to his 
knees, and jacket that pinched and did not 
cover his arms below the elbow. 

Charlie’s sleep was troubled. He rose 
as soon as it was light, and looked out 
of the window to see if Joe Brown had 
kept his word and come for the bag. The 


276 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


bag was gone. “So far, so good,” said 
Charlie to himself ; “ I knew Joe was a 
man of his word.” 

Yes, Joe Brown kept his word and came 
for the bag, but he went away without it, 
for the other Joe got ahead of him, as we 
have seen, and Joe No. 2 went away, saying 
to himself, “ What's up ? I'd like to know. 
Is it all found out? or has that fellow 
backed out at the last moment? Nat 
and I will go, anyway.” 


CHAPTER XX. 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 

B REAKFAST at the Arnolds’ was earlier 
than usual, and was eaten rather hur- 
riedly and quietly. No one felt like asking 
for Chinese stories. No allusion was openly 
made to Mrs. Snowden’s departure before 
Eddie, for it was thought best not to let 
him know anything about it until after 
Mrs. Snowden had gone. He was sent 
into the play -room while the “ good-byes,” 
were spoken. 

About an hour after breakfast Jane came 
into the play-room to dress Eddie for a drive 
in the country with Mrs. Arnold, and at the 
same time she told Maggie to hurry and get 
ready, for her mother was going to take her 
to spend the day with Aunt Louise. 

Josie was left at home to keep house for 
Stephen and Charlie. As her mother step- 


278 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


ped into the carriage Josie said to her, “ If 
Charlie meets you he will want to go too.” 
And Mrs. Arnold replied, “ If we meet him 
I believe I will take him, for he can help 
amuse Eddie.” 

Meanwhile, Joe and Plum, by different 
streets, at different times, found their way 
to the depot. From their hiding-places 
they saw Charlie come with his father 
and Mrs. Snowden. They watched until 
they saw the train move off, leaving Char- 
lie standing alone. Then, after giving a 
low whistle agreed upon as a signal, Joe 
went to get their tickets. The boys had 
left that for him to do. Joe walked boldly 
up to the ticket-office, around which quite a 
crowd had gathered. Joe worked his way 
in, and for the first time considered that 
though they had agreed to take the first 
train that went out after Mr. Arnold left, 
yet they did not know where that train 
went. 

This perplexed Joe. How could he buy 
tickets if he did not know where he was 
going? He watched and listened as the 
others bought their tickets. So many were 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 279 

buying tickets to Boston, Joe thought that 
he too would buy for Boston. 

Most of the people said “ Boston,” and, 
laying down a bill, received the change 
and their tickets without another word. 
One gentlemen, however, said, “ Ticket 
to Boston — how much ?” and the ticket- 
agent answered, “ Three seventy-five.” 

Joe started. He watched the gentleman, 
and saw him take out a five-dollar bill and 
hand it to the agent. 

“ We can never do that,” thought Joe. 
“ My ! what a lot of money it takes !” 

And Joe slipped out of the crowd and 
looked for the boys. He could not find 
them. He went into the baggage-room, 
and out again into the passenger-room, 
then back into the baggage-room. Just 
then he heard the cry, “ Boston train — all 
aboard!” and he ran out of the baggage- 
room and jumped on board. He jostled 
against Charlie as he got on the plat- 
form, and as they entered the car Plum 
came in at the other door. The three boys 
took seats together and began comparing 
experiences. 


280 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ So we are going to Boston, I hear ?” said 
Nat Pluraer. 

“ Yes,” said Charlie ; “ that’s what the 
man said.” 

“It costs an awful lot, boys,” said Joe. 
“ I hadn’t money enough to buy tickets, 
and I came out to ask you what to do, 
and I couldn’t find you. What became 
of you?” 

“Why, Charlie saw Mr. Gaines, and he 
had to hide behind a trunk. And I walk- 
ed off, for fear I might see somebody,” said 
Nat Plumer. 

“ Didn’t we run when he called ‘ All 
aboard !’ ” said Charlie laughing. 

“ Then, where’s the tickets, Joe ?” 

“ I couldn’t get any, Plum ; I mean, I 
hadn’t money enough to get all three, and 
I didn’t know what to do.” 

“ So we got off without paying. Good !” 
exclaimed Charlie. 

“ Hush ! some one’ll hear you. We’ll 
have to pay; don’t you know that? The 
conductor will come in and ask for our 
tickets,” said Joe. 

“ What will we say ?” inquired Charlie. 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 281 

The boys were silent a moment. Just 
then the conductor opened the door. The 
boys sat very near the door. He came to 
them before they had time to consult to- 
gether, but Nat had already thought of a 
way to get out of the difficulty. He only 
had a chance to whisper to Joe, “ Leave that 
to me,” when the conductor said, “ Tickets !” 
and held out his hand. 

“ We were too late to buy any, sir ; we 
’most got left,” said Nat. 

“ Where do you want to go ?” inquired the 
conductor. 

“To Boston,” answered Nat, trying to 
look as if a journey to Boston was an 
every-day affair. 

“ All of you ?” asked the conductor. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

The conductor handed Nat three tickets, 
saying as he did so, “Eleven twenty-five.” 

“ What, sir ?” exclaimed Nat in alarm. 

“ Eleven twenty-five — three seventy-five 
apiece,” answered the conductor. 

The boys looked at each other. Joe drew 
out the portemonnaie containing his own mon- 
ey and the money given him by the boys. 


282 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


He began to count in a confused way. The 
conductor stood looking at them ; he began to 
suspect the boys. 

“ How is this ?” he said ; “ what takes you 
three off to Boston ?” 

“ Auntie’s dead,” said Nat, “ and mother’s 
sent for us to come to the funeral.” 

“ A good way to go to a funeral ! Are you 
all brothers ?” 

“ Yes, sir,” replied Nat, to whom lying 
was not a new practice. 

“ Don’t look alike. Come, count your 
money ; I can’t wait all day.” 

Joe spread the quarters and half-dollars 
and three one-dollar bills on the seat beside 
him, and tried to count it. The conductor grew 
impatient, and suddenly pushed Joe to make 
room for him to sit down. He took up the 
money and counted it himself. It was quick- 
ly done, and it proved not enough. 

“ Only nine-sixty. Is this all you’ve got ? 
I don’t like the looks of this, boys,” said the 
conductor. 

“ I have more in my purse,” said Charlie, 
trying to speak in a manly way, though he 
was really very much frightened. He opened 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 283 

his purse and took out a two-dollar bill and 
handed it to the man. Charlie hoped he did 
not see that when the bill went out it left the 
portemonnaie empty. 

The conductor took it, and handing Nat 
the change, he hastily left them, Saying, 
“ I hope you boys are telling the truth.” 

“ That’s my change, Nat,” said Charlie. 

“ How much is it ?” asked Joe. 

Nat counted it before he handed it to 
Charlie, and said, “ Thirty-five cents.” 

“ Is that all ?” exclaimed Charlie. 

“Why, of course it is,” answered Nat. 
“How much did you expect?” 

“ I don’t know,” said Charlie ; “ I thought 
it would be more.” 

“ How much more have you ?” asked Joe 
as Charlie opened his portemonnaie to put 
back the thirty-five cents. Joe looked as 
he spoke, and saw the portemonnaie was 
empty. 

“ Why, you haven’t a cent more !” 

“ No,” said Charlie, who looked as if he 
were going to cry. 

“ How are you going round the world, I’d 
like to know ?” 


284 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Charlie could not answer Joe’s question. 

“We owe him something, Joe,” said 
Nat. 

Charlie brightened up at this, but Joe said, 
“ I don’t see how : I paid out all in my pocket 
for those tickets.” 

“ Why, haven’t you got another purse 
somewhere with some more in it?” asked 
Nat, looking troubled. 

“No,” said Joe. 

“ Is all your money gone already ?”asked 
Nat, who now took out his own porte- 
monnaie. 

“ Yes, true as I live, Nat and Joe took 
out his portemonnaie, and, opening it, shook 
it over Nat’s lap. 

Nat began counting his money. Joe and 
Charlie watched him, but said not a word. 
The portemonnaie was pretty full. The 
money, slowly counted, reached the sum of 
six dollars and thirty-one cents, which 
seemed a very large sum to Nat when he 
put it in, but now it did not seem so 
large. 

“Where did you get so much, Nat?” ask- 
ed Charlie. “ I believe you stole it.” 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 285 

Nat blushed : “ No, I did not steal it ; I 
borrowed it of Sarah. That is, I took it 
without saying anything about it. But I 
didn’t mean to spend it unless I couldn’t 
help it. And, any way, I mean to bring 
handsome presents to her, for she has lived 
with us as long as I can remember.” 

“ It’s stealing ; and she’ll tell your mother,” 
said Charlie. 

“ No,” answered Nat. “ I left a note 
explaining it all to her, and telling her I 
had to borrow it, because mother had not 
left me enough to travel with.” 

“ And she thinks you have gone to your 
aunt’s funeral ?” said Joe. 

“ Yes.” 

“ You must pay what you owe me,” said 
Charlie ; “ you know I helped pay for your 
ticket.” 

“ How much is it ?” asked Nat. 

Charlie could not tell. Joe tried to figure 
it out, but did not succeed, though he took 
out pencil and paper and worked for a long 
time. Every time he thought he almost had 
it one of the boys would speak to him, and 
then he had to begin all over again. 


286 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Let me try now/’ said Nat. “ You keep 
still.” 

“I could do it if you’d both keep still,” 
said Joe ; and he tried again. “ Oh bother !” 
he said at last ; “ I’ll give up.” 

Nat took the paper and pencil and said, 
“ Now, this is the way. You look on, and 
I’ll do it.” 

“ Come sit between us, then,” said Charlie. 

Nat had been sitting on a seat turned over 
to face the one on which the boys were sit- 
ting. The bags were beside him. 

Just then Joe exclaimed, “ Charlie, where’s 
your bag ?” 

“ Why, you’ve got it. What did you do 
with it?” cried Charlie. 

“ You never threw it out to me.” 

“ I did, too,” exclaimed Charlie, “ and you 
came and took it.” 

“ I came under your window, and it wasn’t 
there ; and I was afraid you had been found 
out.” 

“ Somebody took it. I looked out soon as 
it was light this morning, and it wasn’t there.” 

“ And you did drop it out, Charlie ?” 

“ Of course I did. The string slipped, and 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 287 

it fell down with such a thump that I thought 
everybody would hear me” 

“ That’s queer.” 

“Come, Joe, you’re fooling. Where have 
you hid it?” said Charlie. 

“True as I live, Charlie, I haven’t seen 
it. I looked for it, and waited around till it 
was real late.” 

“ Couldn’t be mother heard it fall, and 
went out after it ?” said Charlie. 

“ You wouldn’t have got off if she had,” 
remarked Nat. 

“So you haven’t any money or clothes?” 
said Joe. “ Poor beginning !” 

Charlie tried to be very brave : “ I’ll not 
want any as long as these last, and I’ll earn 
more when these wear out.” But before he 
could say all this his eyes were full of tears, 
so th*tt he had to turn very suddenly and 
look out of the window. 

The other boys felt sorry enough for him, 
but did not know what to say to comfort 
him. Joe began to hum a tune; he did not 
get very far. Nat remarked upon the pleas- 
ure of riding in the cars. Joe agreed with 
him : “ It was splendid.” But, somehow, 


288 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Joe did not look as if he was enjoying it. 
In fact, all three boys looked as if they were 
really going to the funeral of a very dear 
aunt, and not at all as if they were on a 
pleasure-excursion. They rode for miles 
in silence. 

The next time the conductor came he 
looked sharply at them, but said nothing. 

“ That fellow looks at us as if we were 
thieves,” remarked Joe. “I say, boys, I 
don’t like to be looked at in that way.” 

“ Nor I,” said Nat. 

“ Let’s be reading next time he comes 
round,” said Charlie. 

Charlie saw a boy with papers just enter- 
ing the car. The boys thought it a good 
idea; it would look manly. They called 
the boy and chose three papers. 

“You pay, Nat,” said Joe; “we’ll pay 
you.” 

Nat was free with his money, and made no 
objection to this. Holding up their papers 
next time the conductor opened the door, 
they continued to keep their eyes on him 
all the while he was passing through the 
car. 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 289 

The long ride came to an end at last, and 
the three boys stood in the streets of Boston, 
not knowing where to go. It was growing 
dark. 

“ Where does our aunt live, Nat?” in- 
quired Joe in a tone which tried to be 
very funny. 

“ Come on a little farther, Joe.” 

They wandered on. 

“ I don’t want to see the city now,” said 
Charlie. “ Time enough for that to-morrow ; 
let’s get a place for the night.” 

“ Come on,” said Nat. 

They came to a corner, where they stood 
for some time looking up and down. They 
saw a hotel not far off. 

“ There’s our place for to-night,” said Nat. 

“ And for to-morrow too,” said Charlie. 

All day they had been wondering what 
Joe and Charlie would do without money. 
Nat at last promised to share with them 
until Monday morning, and then Joe and 
Charlie were to go out and find places 
where they could earn money enough 
to support themselves and pay what they 
owed Nat. 


19 


290 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


The foolish fellows imagined it was easy to 
get places and earn money ; they knew little 
of the world, and did not know their own 
ignorance. 

Nat led the way into the hotel. They 
followed, closely a gentleman who carried a 
bag and was evidently a traveler just from 
the train. They listened as he engaged a 
room, and when he walked off Nat took his 
place before the clerk and imitated the gen- 
tleman as well as he could. 

“ You three together, I suppose?” said the 
clerk. 

“Yes, we came .together,” answered Nat. 

“ I mean, do you want to room together?” 

“Oh yes; we might as well,” said Nat, 
looking round at Joe and Charlie. — “ Don’t 
you say so, boys.” 

The boys answered “ Yes.” 

They felt manly as the porter led the way 
to their room. It was a large back room in 
the third story; there were two beds in it. 

“Supper?” asked the porter as he turned 
to leave them. 

“ Oh yes,” exclaimed all at once, for they 
were very hungry. 


THE YOUNG RUNAWAYS. 


291 


“ It’s ready now,” said the porter ; and 
before they thought of asking him where 
to find it the man was out of sight, and his 
steps were heard going down some hidden 
staircase. 

The boys went to the window and looked 
out. In the twilight the view was far from 
cheering. High houses shut them in ; it was 
hard to get a peep at the sky. They did not 
look long ; supper was what they wanted. 
They had eaten Joe’s and Nat’s lunches early 
in the day, and had bought nuts and apples 
in the cars. And yet they were very hun- 
gry. They started down stairs. 

Guided partly by the savory smell of steak 
cooking, they found themselves at last at the 
kitchen-door, and from the kitchen they were 
directed into the dining-room. 

They felt very awkward in the large dining- 
room among strangers, but the food cheered 
them considerably, and they came out from 
the dining-room in a jolly mood. 

“Fun, isn’t it, boys?” remarked Joe. 
And Nat and Charlie said they thought it 
was the best fun they ever had. 

They proposed seeing the city by night, 


292 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


and went out, cautiously marking their way, 
so that they could find the hotel again. 

It was easier finding the hotel than it was 
finding their room, for they wandered long 
in the halls before they found the open door 
and the two bags standing on the floor just 
where they had left them. Joe said if it 
had not been for those bags he would never 
have known the room. Charlie thought he 
would have known it by the high window, 
but the other boys suggested that perhaps 
every room had a window like that. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

A SORROWFUL HOME. 

J OSIE and Stephen dined alone. 

When Stephen asked after Charlie, Josie 
said she supposed he had met mother, and 
she had taken him to see Aunt Louise. 

Mrs. Snowden went on her way, hoping 
she had done some good in Mr. Arnold’s 
family, where she had received so much 
kindness, little thinking that her stories of 
far-off China had been a suggestion of wrong- 
doing to one member of the household. 

Mrs. Arnold and the children had a pleas- 
ant day with Aunt Louise, and they return- 
ed at dark to learn that Charlie was missing. 
They tried to think Mr. Arnold had taken 
Charlie with him, but Mrs. Arnold was very 
much worried. Josie and Stephen were sure 
father had taken him. 

Maggie had a terrible fear in her heart, 

293 


294 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


but she was afraid to speak of it. She lay 
awake until Josie came to bed, and then 
when the light was out she said, “ Josie, 
suppose you knew an awful secret, and 
didn’t dare tell it, what would you do ?” 

Her trembling voice frightened Josie, and 
she said, “ What is it, Maggie ? — something 
about Charlie? You must tell.” 

Maggie sobbed, but could not speak for a 
moment. Josie jumped out of bed and lit the 
gas. Then coming to the bedside, she said, 
“ Tell me quick, Maggie, or I’ll call mother.” 

“ Oh, don’t tell mother ; it would break 
her heart, Josie. Charlie’s gone round the 
world, I do believe.” 

“ Gone round the world ! Why, he could 
not,” exclaimed Josie. 

“ Couldn’t, Josie ? Why not ?” 

“ What makes you think of such a thing ? 
Did he say anything, Maggie ?” 

“ Yes, that’s just it,” replied Maggie. 
“ He once told me he was going, and then 
he said I mustn’t tell ; and I didn’t dare to. 
And I thought maybe he’d given it up.” 

Josie stood a moment as if in a dream, 
and then ran down stairs to call her mother. 


A SORROWFUL HOME. 


295 


Mrs. Arnold sat down on Maggie’s bed 
and questioned her closely. She was con- 
vinced that Maggie was right. She went 
into Charlie’s room, and, lighting the gas, 
searched his drawers and closet. Then she 
went into the store-room to see if any bag- 
gage was missing. Coming back, she said, 
“ The leather bag — father’s large one — is 
gone, and Charlie’s best suit is gone, and 
some other things;” and sinking down into 
Josie’s rocking-chair she covered her face 
with her hands and groaned aloud. 

Stephen, who was sleeping soundly when 
his mother came into the room, roused him- 
self at last and came into Josie’s room. 
When he understood what was the matter 
he hurriedly dressed himself and went after 
Judge Green. 

Oh, what an anxious night they had ! 
They telegraphed first to Mr. Arnold, and 
receiving answer that Charlie was not with 
him, they sent telegrams in all directions. 

Mr. Arnold, as soon as he received word, 
telegraphed to all of their relations, thinking 
that Charlie might be with some of them. 
He could not take a train homeward-bound 


296 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


until six o’clock in the morning. All night 
he walked the floor praying for his little boy. 
The mother at home on her knees passed the 
sleepless night in prayer to God. Josie and 
Stephen thought they had never spent such 
a night, and poor little Maggie looked like 
a ghost when morning came. 

The next day was the Sabbath. 

“ Will you go to church, mother ?” in- 
quired the children as they sat at the break- 
fast- table trying to eat. 

“Yes, we must all try,” said Mrs. Ar- 
nold. But as she spoke she closed her eyes 
wearily and fell over into the arms of Ste- 
phen, who sprang to catch her. The chil- 
dren managed to get her to the sofa. There 
she lay with closed eyes. They thought she 
was dead, but Jane said she had only fainted. 
Jane ran for the camphor, Josie bathed her 
face, Maggie began to pray. Just then the 
door-bell rang. “ That’s papa,” cried Mag- 
gie; and she ran swiftly to the door. 

It was Judge and Mrs. Green. 

“ Why ! why ! what’s this ? A little ghost, 
I do declare !” cried the judge in his cheery 
voice; and he actually took Maggie up in 


.4 SORROWFUL HOME. 


297 


his arms and carried her right into the din- 
ing-room. 

When Mrs. Green saw Maggie’s mother 
lying with closed eyes and face like marble 
she said not a word, but after opening the 
window by the sofa she went to the side- 
board and said to Stephen, who followed 
her, “ Brandy, quick !” And when Ste- 
phen opened the sideboard and handed 
her the bottle she mixed some and 
brought it to Mrs. Arnold. She loosened 
Mrs. Arnold’s dress and fanned her, while 
Josie gently forced some of the brandy into 
her mother’s mouth. 

Presently Mrs. Arnold opened her eyes, 
sighed heavily and closed them again. And 
now the tears began to trickle down her 
cheeks. 

“ That’s the first time mother has cried,” 
whispered Josie to Mrs. Green. 

“ Don’t disturb her ; it will do her good,” 
answered Mrs. Green in a low whisper, with 
her own eyes full of tears. She rose hastily 
and passed into the parlor. When Maggie 
found her there afterward her eyes were 
red and swollen, and she hugged Maggie — 


298 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“just as Uncle Charles does,” Maggie said 
afterward to Josie. 

After a while Mrs. Arnold sat up and 
talked to Judge Green. His cheerful voice 
seemed to help them all a little. He made the 
children sit down again at the breakfast- 
table, while he took Mrs. Arnold’s place and 
made believe to pour out coffee. This made 
Maggie laugh. He actually did pour out 
a cup of coffee, and told Jane to present it 
to Mrs. Arnold with his compliments. Mrs. 
Arnold drank it, and a little color came into 
her lips and cheeks. 

“Mrs. Arnold,” said the judge, “did you 
ever hear of boys going round the world 
without money?” 

“ No,” faintly answered Mrs. Arnold. 

“ What do they generally do, ma’am, in 
such cases?” 

“ Come back, I suppose,” said Mrs. 
Arnold. 

“Just so,” said the judge. “And my 
opinion is that your boy will do just what 
all other boys do — come back when his mon- 
ey is gone.” 

‘“ I think so too,” said Maggie. 


A SORROWFUL HOME. 


299 


“ Sound, little ghost ! Take some chick- 
en ?” said the judge. 

Maggie began to eat; Josie and Stephen 
followed her example. Judge Green kept 
his seat behind the coffee-pot, talking pleas- 
antly. When the church-bells rang the judge 
and Stephen went to church together ; the 
rest stayed at home, for after such a sleepless 
night they were hardly fit to go. Before 
starting for church Judge Green offered to 
go look for Charlie in any direction Mrs. 
Arnold might name. But his advice was 
to wait quietly until Mr. Arnold returned. 
“ Possibly/’ he said, “ Charlie will get home 
first.” 

Mrs. Arnold, not knowing where to send, 
concluded to wait as quietly as she could 
until her husband came home. 

As they walked to church, Judge Green 
told Stephen they would go to the d^pot 
after service and wait for the train on which 
they were expecting his father. This they 
did. Mr. Arnold came, and they walked 
home together, planning and consulting as 
they went. 

“ If you can persuade Mrs. Arnold to do 


300 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


it, you may depend upon it the best way 
will be to wait for the boy to come home 
of bis own accord. He will do it before 
the week is out, I have no doubt,” said 
the judge. 

Mr. Arnold made no reply. They 
walked on in silence for some time, and 
then he said, “ I believe you are right. 
At any rate, I will do nothing until to- 
morrow.” 

When they reached the house they found 
Mrs. Arnold much better ; Josie and Mag- 
gie were asleep. Mrs. Green and her hus- 
band went home, after promising to call in 
after evening-service. 

It was very hard work to persuade 
Charlie’s mother to let him wander on 
alone until he was tired and ready to come 
back to his pleasant home. But at last she 
yielded to her husband’s reasoning, and 
tried to be brave and cheerful, trusting 
in God. 

Night and morning sobs were heard as 
the family on their knees asked their 
heavenly Father to watch over and bring 


A SORROWFUL HOME. 


301 


home the wanderer ; and Mrs. Arnold 
often went silently to her room, where 
she could weep and pray alone. 

And what were the boys doing all this 
time? 


CHAPTER XXII. 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON. 

“ "YT OBODY to haul us out early to-mor- 
-L' row,” said Joe as he tumbled into 
bed. “Turn out the light, whoever comes 
in last.” 

“ That won’t be me,” said Charlie, jumping 
into bed beside Joe. 

“ Nat, you’ve got to sleep alone in that 
bed,” remarked Joe. 

“ I don’t mind that ; I like it,” answered 
Nat. 

“ What time must we get up ?” asked 
Charlie. 

“ Oh, I don’t know — nine or ten o’clock,” 
answered Joe. 

“ Why, won’t we be late for breakfast and 
church ?” asked Charlie. 

“ Church isn’t on my programme for to- 
morrow,” said Nat. 

302 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON. 303 

“ Breakfast isn’t over till ten,” said Joe ; 
“ I saw it on the card nailed to the door. 
For once, I’m going to sleep as long as I 
like. Grandpa always gets up so early 
Sunday mornings, and sings psalm-tunes 
as loud as he can, just to wake me up.” 

When the sun rose on the morrow Grandpa 
Brown sang with a troubled heart, and grand- 
ma ate no breakfast, for dear Joe was gone. 

At Mrs. Plumer’s, faithful Sarah ate her 
breakfast, washed her plate and cup and sau- 
cer, put on her clean apron and sat down in the 
kitchen to read her Bible. She would not go 
to church and leave the house alone when 
Mrs. Plumer was away, and Nat too. And 
the absent Mrs. Plumer, when the clock 
struck nine, sent up to heaven a prayer 
that God would bless the Sabbath -school 
teaching to her dear Nat. “ Dear boy !” 
she thought, “ I hope he won’t feel very 
lonely to-day, and I hope he will do what 
is right.” 

The boys slept heavily, for they were very 
tired. Charlie was the first to wake; he 
had no idea what time it was. At home he 
could always tell by the sounds he heard — 


304 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

first, the milkman’s bell ; then Jane opening 
the windows down stairs ; then his mother’s 
voice : “ Stephen ! Charlie ! come, get up ! 
Josie ! Maggie ! come, girls !” Mrs. Ar- 
nold did not believe in letting the chil- 
dren sleep until the last minute. 

“ I can dress in five minutes, mother,” 
Charlie once said ; “ you needn’t call me 
any earlier.” 

“ I don’t want a boy at my breakfast-table 
who dresses in five minutes,” answered his 
mother ; “ neither do I want my boy to come 
without praying and reading his Bible.” 

Mrs. Arnold took good care to wake them 
all in good season, though she never ques- 
tioned them about their devotions. No mat- 
ter when Charlie woke, he never rose until 
his mother called him. But this morning, 
after lying a long time and thinking about a 
great many things, he got up and began 
dressing very quietly. He was troubled 
about church. Nat did not mean to go. 
What should he do? And would Joe go? 
Where should he find a church ? And 
would it be worth while to go into a strange 
Sabbath-school ? Before he was quite dress- 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON 305 

ed tlie church-bells began ringing, and that 
woke up Nat and Joe. They laughed to see 
Charlie up and dressed, and asked him what 
he was going to do. Charlie did not like to 
say anything about going to church, for fear 
the boys would laugh at him. He only said 
he was hungry for breakfast. 

As soon as breakfast was over they went 
out, and at length they came to a church. 
Charlie proposed going in, and the boys 
made no objection. 

“ I haven’t got on my Sunday clothes,” 
said Charlie, “ but we can sit by the door.” 

The organ was playing when they went 
in. It was an Episcopal church. The ser- 
vice, strange to them and in the strange 
church, did not make the boys feel very 
much at home. In fact, they were all 
homesick before they left the church, and 
would have given anything to have been at 
home. 

When they came out of church they wan- 
dered up one street and down another until 
they were too tired to walk any longer. They 
sat down upon a stoop to rest, and Charlie 
wondered which was the nearest way home. 

20 


306 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Home to the hotel, you mean, Charlie,” 
said Joe. 

“ Yes ; I wish home was as near.” 

“ Goodness, Nat ! do you hear that f ” ask- 
ed Joe. “ We’ve got a homesick baby on 
our hands.” 

“ I’m not, either,” exclaimed Charlie 
indignantly; “ I was only wondering what 
they were doing.” 

“ I’ll tell you if you want to know,” said 
Joe ; “ they’re eating their dinners. Let’s 
go to ours.” 

They walked back to the hotel, took din- 
ner, and wondered what to do next. 

“ If it were only Monday we’d find enough 
to do,” said Joe. 

And Nat said, “ Yes, boys, you’ve got to 
hurry up and get money enough to pay me 
back if I pay your hotel-bill.” v 

“ We ought to have gone to a cheaper 
place,” said Charlie ; “ it says ‘ three dollars 
a day.” 

“ I didn’t notice that,” said Joe. 

They went up to a bill posted near the 
clerk’s desk, and found Charlie was right. 
They whispered together, for gentlemen were 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON 307 

passing in and out of the halls and they did 
not want to be heard. The clerk watched 
them ; he began to be suspicious. 

After a whispered consultation they walk- 
ed out into the street in the hope of finding 
a cheaper lodging-place. At last they saw a 
house with the sign “ Boarding/’ and they 
stopped, hesitating what to do. 

“ It’s a horrible-looking place/’ said Char- 
lie in disgust. “ Look what dirty windows !” 

“ That makes me think it will be cheap,” 
remarked Nat. 

“ It ought to be,” said Joe. 

“ Let’s go in,” said Nat. 

“ Don’t on Sunday,” said Charlie ; “ wait 
till to-morrow morning.” 

They went back to the hotel as it grew 
dark, and lounged around till they were 
ready to go to bed. These three boys saw 
many things that evening they had never 
before seen, for they soon found their way 
from the parlor to the smoking-room, and 
then -into the bar-room. Joking, swearing, 
card-playing and drinking make them al- 
most forget that it was the Sabbath, and 
they went to bed feeling very uncomfortable. 


308 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Each boy wished himself at home, though 
he would not confess it. 

Monday morning early they came down 
stairs, and after eating breakfast Nat walked 
up to the clerk’s desk to pay their bill. His 
plan was to pay on the bill all the money he 
had, and ask the clerk to trust them until 
they could earn more. They did not know 
much about business affairs, or they would 
not have expected strangers to trust them. 

Charlie, carrying Nat’s bag, and Joe, car- 
rying his own, went out on the piazza to wait 
for Nat. 

The bill was twelve dollars. Nat could 
only offer six dollars and thirty-one cents. 

“ Just as I thought !” muttered the clerk ; 
and he made signs to the porter, who stood 
watching. The porter stepped quickly out 
upon the piazza, and seizing both boys by 
the arms led them to the desk. The clerk 
rang for the proprietor, who told the boys 
he would keep their bags until they could 
pay their bill. The proprietor deliberately 
opened the bags and examined all the cloth- 
ing in them, the porter meanwhile holding 
on to the two boys. 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON 309 

“We mean to pay, sir,” said Nat, who was 
almost choking with fright and indignation. 
“We meant to ask you to trust us for a 
while.” 

“Yes, I’ll trust you,” replied the man, 
holding on to the bags as he spoke. He 
gave a disagreeable laugh, and added, 
“You’d better go now.” 

“ We’re going to earn money, sir,” said 
Charlie, “and then we’ll pay every cent.” 

“ Hurry up and do it,” said the pro- 
prietor, “ and don’t waste your precious 
time here.” 

The porter loosened his hold, and the 
three boys walked out of the door, feeling 
very much like thieves. Empty-handed 
and with empty purses they sorrowfully 
walked down the street, not knowing 
which way to turn for employment. 

Nat was the first to break the gloomy si- 
lence : “ Confound it, Charlie ! I wish you 
had never brought us here.” 

“I brought you here! What do you 
mean ?” 

“ Yes, you brought us here. And now I 
wish you’d take us home.” 


310 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ How about going round the world, Nat?” 
inquired Joe. 

“ Pve had enough of it,” replied Nat ; 
“ I’m going home. 

“ How about your aunt’s funeral ?” asked 
Joe with a feeble attempt to laugh. 

“ Who’s the homesick baby now ?” asked 
Charlie, somewhat contemptuously. 

“ You’re both homesick, if you would but 
own up,” answered Nat. 

No reply to this. 

Finally, Charlie said, “ Joe knows I didn’t 
want you to come, Plum. Hid I, Joe ?” 

“ No,” replied Joe; “he didn’t think it 
fair to coax you off, because your mother 
hadn’t anybody but you.” 

At this mention of his mother Nat Plurn- 
er’s eyes winked violently and his face turned 
very red. You would have thought he was 
going to cry. 

Joe was the most cheerful of the three. 

“ Come, boys,” he said, “ there’s no use 
quarreling, and there’s no use crying. 
Let’s look for places. We’ll go straight 
on down this street. — You, Charlie, go 
into the first store and ask for a place. — 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON. . 311 

Nat, take the second ; I’ll take the third. 
And we’ll keep on in that way till we’ve been 
in all the stores.” 

“ Agreed,” said Nat. 

Charlie saw a bakery not far off. “ I’ll 
go for a place there,” he said, “ for I haven’t 
a cent to buy lunch.” 

“ Neither have we,” cried both the other 
boys at once. And Nat said, “ Remember, 
boys, you owe me lots of money.” 

Joe told Charlie he must stick to the plan 
of taking the stores by turns, and the fortu- 
nate boy whose turn came at the bakery might 
go in and try his luck. 

They agreed, and started. 

Charlie went into the first store, dry and 
fancy goods. No boy wanted ; girls did the 
work here. 

Nat’s store was occupied by a hair-dresser 
and furnisher: “Want a boy, sir?” — “No. 
Do you want a wig?” 

Joe’s was a dry-goods store : “Want a boy, 
sir ?”■ — “ Yes, we want one for a day ; one 
of our boys is sick. Know your way well 
around the city ?” — “ No, sir,” was Joe’s 
disappointed answer. — “ Then you won’t 


312 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


answer our purpose : we have had trouble 
enough of that kind.” 

Joe came out, and, shaking his head at 
the boys, who met him outside the door, he 
walked quietly off to the third store and 
went in. Nat and Charlie watched till he 
disappeared in the store, and then they went 
each into his appointed place. 

Presently all three appeared, and the same 
thing was repeated. In this way they went 
the whole length of a long business street. 
They met on the corner. 

“ Shall we try the other side ?” asked 
Joe. 

“ It don’t look as promising as this,” said 
Nat. 

“ Let’s rest a while, boys,” said Charlie. 
And they went around the corner and sat 
down on a doorstep. 

“ I didn’t think it was going to be so hard 
to get places,” said Charlie. 

“ Nor I,” replied Joe. 

“ How about the bakery, Joe ?” inquired 
Nat. 

“ Oh, I tried in every way to get in there. 
The cake smelt awful good,” replied Joe. 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON. 


313 


“ There’s a candy-store on the other side,” 
said Charlie. 

“ We’ll want bread - and - butter before 
long,” remarked Nat. 

“ Didn’t that man leave you a cent, 
Nat?” 

“ Not a cent, Charlie.” 

“ We’ll have to run in debt for dinner,” 
said Charlie. 

“ Who’ll trust us ?” asked Nat. 

The little courage Charlie had forsook 
him now. 

The boys, weary, hungry, homeless, sat 
on the step in silence for some time. Once 
Nat walked to the corner and looked up the 
street, and then came back and sat down 
without saying a word. Back and forth 
went a crowd of people. But few noticed 
the three boys sitting on the stoop, and those 
who did see them did not imagine from their 
faces that they were taking a voyage round 
the world for pleasure. Maybe they were 
seeking pleasure ; certainly they had not yet 
found it. 

While they sat there enjoying themselves 
good old Grandpa Brown was on his way to 


314 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


school to see if anybody could tell him what 
had become of his Joe. The old man was 
growing feeble ; he had to go into the school- 
room and sit down, and when he once sat 
down he seemed not to want to get up again. 
He found it easier to talk than to walk, and 
as he told the boys how much he had de- 
pended upon Joe to be the stay of his old 
age, and how he had made his will and left 
all to Joe, the boys exclaimed with one voice 
that it was the meanest thing they ever heard 
of, and they would not have believed Joe 
could have been so cruel. 

“ Mother takes it worse than I do,” said 
the old man tremblingly, wiping his eyes as 
he spoke. “ You see, Joe's father and moth- 
er were both killed by a. railroad accident, 
and we took Joe because there was nobody 
else to take care of him. He couldn't walk 
yet when mother took him ; and so, you see, 
it comes rather hard on mother.” 

Grandpa and Grandma Brown always 
called each other “ father ” and “ mother.” 

“ Boys,” said the teacher, “ if any of you 
know where these three boys have gone, you 
must tell me now and here.” 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON. 315 

“ Three boys !” exclaimed old Mr. Brown, 
looking wonderingly at the teacher. 

“Yes; Charles Arnold and Nathan Plumer 
are also missing.” 

The old man looked at Mr. Cogswell, the 
teacher, as if he could not believe it. And 
Mr. Cogswell repeated his command to the 
boys. 

“ We have just heard about Nathan 
Plumer/’ said Mr. Cogswell, turning to 
Mr. Brown. “ Mrs. Plumer’s servant was 
here a few moments ago. She says Mrs. 
Plumer is away, and she thought Nathan 
had gone to join his mother. But this 
morning she received a letter from Mrs. 
Plumer ; it was addressed to Nathan, but she 
opened it. It told Nathan to meet her this 
afternoon at five o’clock at the depot. The 
woman seemed in great distress. I promised 
her that I would meet Mrs. Plumer at the 
depot, and that I would do all I could to 
find Nathan.” 

“And Joe too,” said the old man. 

Mr. Cogswell looked at the boys. No one 
spoke. 

Grandpa Brown, thinking sadly about 


316 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Mrs. Plumer, said, “ * The only son of his 
mother, and she a widow.’ ” 

Then Rob Alan spoke: “Mr. Cogswell, 
Stanley knows, but he is afraid to tell.” 

“Tell all you know, Stanley,” said Mr. 
Cogswell ; “ I insist upon it.” 

“ I only heard them talking about going 
round the world, sir, and they stopped as 
soon as they saw me, and told me if ever 
I told they’d make it hot for me in school.” 

“ It will be hot for them,” remarked 
the teacher. — “ Is that all you know about 
it, Stanley?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Does any one know anything more about 
these boys ?” asked Mr. Cogswell. 

“ They’ve been whispering together a good 
deal lately,” said Joe Spencer. 

“ Yes ; I’ve noticed that,” said Mr. Cogs- 
well. 

“ It’s all Mrs. Snowden’s fault,” said Jacob 
Sewall. 

“Who is Mrs. Snowden?” asked Mr. 
Cogswell in surprise. 

“ Why, sir, she’s a missionary from 
China. She told Charlie such wonderful 


ENJOYING LIFE IN BOSTON. 317 

stories it made him start to go round the 
world. I know he said often he’d like to 
go.” 

“ Yes,” said Joe Spencer, “ and after a 
while they wouldn’t tell us boys any more 
stories. They just kept them to themselves, 
for fear we’d tell.” 

“ Yes, so they did,” said Rob Alan. 


And still the three boys sat on the step. 




CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 

T WILIGHT was not a quiet hour in the 
Boston depot. Passengers hurried in 
and bustled out, taking their places in the 
dimly-lighted cars, which soon puffed out of 
the depot, to be succeeded by other trains 
and other hurrying passengers. 

Outside the depot stand three boys — our 
Charlie, Nat and Joe. How tired and hun- 
gry they look ! Are they still seeking pleas- 
ure? They look as if they had not found 
it. I really believe they mean to go home. 
Let us listen to what they are saying : 

“You go in, Joe, and beg just a piece of 
bread. And if you get some we’ll try it 
too.” 

“ I’ve a mind to try, Charlie.” 

“ Try it, and we’ll all go in together,” said 
Nat.“ Tell him we’ve been left, and our mon- 

318 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 319 

ey’s. all gone ; and if we only get something 
to eat we’ll get along about the rest.” 

“ I suppose he wouldn’t give us a ticket ?” 
said Charlie. 

“ No,- no, greeny ! Tickets aren’t to be 
given away. We’ll have to walk home.” 

“ I don’t see any other way, Nat,” said 
Joe. 

They went into the restaurant and tried 
to tell their story. The waiters were too 
busy to listen, but a gentleman, seeing 
their distress, ordered ham sandwiches for 
them, and left them eating, for his train 
was just starting. 

“ I hope you’ll go home,” he said, “ if you 
have any home, for you look like runaway 
boys; and I believe you are,” and then took 
his own son by the hand and hurried into 
the car. 

The boys having eaten their lunch, went out, 
and as the homeward-bound train started they 
followed it, walking on the track. They walk- 
ed until dark. They did not talk much ; they 
were too tired and sad. 

“ Next time I leave home, Charlie Ar- 
nold, you may shoot me.” 


320 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Don't blame me, Nat ; it was all Mrs. 
Snowden's fault.” 

“ I don’t think it’s fair to blame her,” said 
Joe. 

“ I wish she’d never come !” said Charlie. 

They walked on until Charlie said he 
could not walk a step farther. The moon 
had shone upon them for the last two hours ; 
they were thankful for that. The flagman’s 
station was just ahead. Charlie said he was 
going to crawl into that, and the boys could 
go on if they wanted to. They were all too 
tired to go farther, so they crept into the 
little shanty, and lay down, one on the bench 
and the other two on the floor, until the flag- 
man came and found his house full to over- 
flowing. 

Tom Conner was an honest, good-natured 
soul. He soon drew from the boys the whole 
story of their wanderings. He could not take 
them home with him, but he gave them leave 
to stay there until morning. He stayed with 
them until the midnight train passed, and 
then went home. 

Five o’clock the next morning Tom Con- 
ner came back to his station, bringing half a 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 321 

loaf of bread and some cold pork. He found 
the boys sleeping soundly. Placing the pro- 
visions beside them, he sat down outside to 
watch for the train. While he was waiting 
another man came up and began talking 
with him. This man espied the three boys 
asleep, and asked Tom Conner what it meant. 
Tom told him the boys’ story. 

“ Look here,” said Tom after telling the 
story : “ you and Lowell are sworn friends. 
Can’t you smuggle these youngsters into the 
baggage-car? They’re all tuckered out.” 

The man thought a moment. Then he 
said, “ Wouldn’t wonder if I could. Let 
them walk on to the station, and I’ll speak 
to Lowell.” 

The passing train woke the boys. They 
were very glad to get the pork and bread, 
and still more pleased to know that they had 
a prospect of riding home in the baggage- 
car. 

“ You must hide down behind things, you 
know,” said Tom. 

“ Must we ?” asked Charlie. 

“ Well, yes ; conductors won’t take boys 
that way, and I don’t believe it is quite 
21 


322 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

right. You see, I wouldn’t do it if you were 
running away, but as you’re sorry and are 
going home, and don’t mean to do so any 
more, it makes it different — don’t you see ?” 

“ Yes, sir,” answered Nat. 

“ And you’ve got a mother?” said the flag- 
man, looking at Nat. 

“ Yes,” answered Nat in a low tone. 

“ And she hasn’t got anybody but you, 
did you say ?” 

Again the answer was, “ Yes,” and the 
tone was lower. 

“Treat you well?” questioned the man. 

“ Yes,” was the answer, so very low that 
you could scarcely hear it. 

“ You’d think she treated him well if you 
could look in there,” said Joe. “ Why, it’s 
all just as Nat wants it. And’ he has more 
spending-money than any boy in school.” 

“ And how about you ?” said Tom Conner, 
looking sharply at Joe. “ Who have you 
got?” 

** Only grandpa and grandma.” 

“ And who have they got?” 

“Only him,” answered Charlie, for Joe 
did not answer. 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 323 

“ Good to you ?” asked the man, still look- 
ing at Joe, whose eyes were on the ground. 

“ Yes ; they’re as good to him as they can 
be. He’s told me so himself,” answered 
Charlie. 

“ Come, youngster, you’re good answering 
other people’s questions, now answer for your- 
self, and you two other fellows keep still. 
Who have you got?” 

“ Father and mother and grandma and 
Stephen and Maggie and Josie,” said Char- 
lie slowly, as if he did not want to, but had 
to say it. 

“ Good to you, all of them ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ What kind of a man is your father ?” 

“ He’s splendid,” answered Charlie. 

“ Mother nice ?” 

“ Oh yes ; she’s better than father. I 
mean — I didn’t mean to say that exactly,” 
said Charlie, hesitating. 

“ But you meant it,” said Tom, looking 
right into Charlie’s eyes. “Did you ever 
have to eat cold pork and dry bread when 
you lived home?” 

“No, never!” exclaimed Charlie. And 


324 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


then, thinking that was not very polite 
after Tom had been so kind, he quickly 
added, “ But it was real kind in you to 
give us yours ; and it tasted awful good ; 
I never thought before that I’d like it.” 

The man laughed. He had not yet done 
with his questions : “ Then you have good 
things to eat?” 

“ Oh yes.” 

“ Any better clothes than these you’ve got 
on?” 

“ Oh yes.” 

Then Charlie remembered he had lost his 
Sunday suit, and he added, “ I had nice Sun- 
day clothes.” 

“ Had them ?” said the man. “ What 
have you done with them ? Pawned 
them ?” 

“ No, I lost them.” Charlie wondered 
if his father would give him another suit. 

Tom startled him a little by his next 
question : “ Do you suppose your father 
will let you come back home again?” 

Poor Charlie ! He had not before thought 
of such a thing as being turned’ away from 
his father’s door. He had imagined them all 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 


125 


searching for him in every direction ; lie had 
even been a little surprised that his father 
had not already found him. He half ex- 
pected to see him jump off the train that ar- 
rived while they were waiting in the Boston 
depot. The idea of his father and mother 
turning him away proved too much for the 
tired, homesick boy, and he sat down on a 
log and cried as if his heart would break. 
Nat and Joe walked off a few steps, and the 
flagman turned off in the opposite direction 
from the boys, saying to himself as he walk- 
ed away, “There ! I guess that will do; they’re 
all sorry enough now. Let him cry a while ; 
it’ll do him good.” 

After examining the track, Tom returned 
to his station. The three boys were sitting 
together in silence. 

“ Come, youngsters, cheer up ! don’t look 
so doleful. I guess your folks ’ll take you 
all in again, if you promise never to do so 
again.” 

“ Never ! never ! never !” said Nat, re- 
peating it three times, as if answering for 
all. — “ Don’t you say so, boys ?” 

Charlie and Joe solemnly declared that 


326 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

they never wanted to run away again, and 
Tom told them they had better be spry now 
and get to the next station before the train 
came along. With many thanks the boys 
bade good-bye to Tom Conner, and hastened 
on their way. 

Helped by Tom’s friend and Lowell and a 
friendly box or two, the boys made the jour- 
ney safely, and in due time each stood in his 
own home. You may imagine how they were 
received, for I cannot begin to tell you. Mrs. 
Plumer did not know exactly what she said 
when Sarah brought Nat into the parlor; 
Nat never felt like speaking about it. 
Grandpa and Grandma Brown did noth- 
ing but cry when Joe sneaked in. And 
Mrs. Arnold, after holding Charlie tight 
in her arms awhile, hurried to her own 
room and shut the door. You can easily 
guess what she did. And Mr. Arnold? 

Oh, I forgot. I did not mean to tell you 
anything about the home-coming of these 
three foolish boys, but, since I have begun, 
I will tell you one thing more. After the 
first greeting, and after Charlie had told his 
story and had been forgiven — yes, his father 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 327 

and mother forgave him — nothing more was 
ever said about his running away. Charlie 
was ashamed to think about it, and he never 
wanted to speak about it. His father and 
mother wondered who had carried off his 
Sunday clothes, but they agreed not to get 
Charlie another suit until it was time to get 
his heavy winter clothes. At first his moth- 
er objected to this, and said she could not 
think of letting Charlie go to church in his 
every-day clothes. But his father convinced 
her that the punishment would be best for 
Charlie ; and Mrs. Arnold said no more 
about it. 

And how do you suppose the boys felt 
about going to school the next day ? Oh, I 
would not have liked to change places with 
them, would you ? The boys taunted them 
with their wrong-doing so unmercifully that 
they were glad when school was out and 
they could escape their tormentors. 

When Sabbath came Charlie wondered 
what he would have to do. He had thought 
about it every day, and thinking about it did 
not seem to help along matters at all. He 
wondered if father and mother had thought 


328 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


about it. Maybe they had bought another 
suit for him and were keeping it as a sur- 
prise. 

Nine o’clock struck. Sunday-school had 
been changed to the afternoon. Ten o’clock ! 
Charlie sat in his room by the window while 
Stephen dressed for church. The children 
had been told to say nothing to Charlie about 
his clothes, and all obeyed orders. Present- 
ly father called, “ Charlie! Stephen! come!” 

Stephen walked down stairs. “ Ask 
mother to come up here, Steve,” said Char- 
lie as Stephen went out of the door. 

“ Charlie, come !” father called again. 
Slowly down the stairs went Charlie. There 
stood mother holding Eddie by the hand, 
and father, Josie, Maggie and Stephen. 
Maggie looked as if she was going to cry. 
But father said pleasantly, “Come along, 
Charlie ; we are all waiting for you.” 

“Shall I go just as I am, sir?” Charlie 
ventured to ask. 

“ Oh yes, my boy. Always wear the best 
you have to church,” replied his father in 
the same cheerful tone ; and he started out 
of the door with Mrs. Arnold. 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 329 

Charlie seized his mother’s arm, and, 
almost crying, said, “ Must I, mother?” 

“ Yes ; father thinks it best.” 

“ Mayn’t I sit by the door ?” 

Mrs. Arnold whispered to her husband, 
who answered, “ Yes.” And then they all 
went to church. 

After Charlie had taken his seat in the 
last pew in church he felt as badly as if he 
had gone up the middle aisle quite to his 
father’s pew. He seemed to be an outcast. 
There were no books in the pew, nor any 
bench. Two poorly-clad women came in 
and sat beside him. When service was over 
he hurried home alone, for if he stood and 
waited he knew he would meet everybody 
he knew. 

Charlie’s father and mother felt almost as 
badly as he did. But they knew Charlie 
needed some punishment, and this was a 
good way to punish him. He had to go to 
Sunday-school too in his every-day clothes. 
He was glad when evening came, but he had 
something to make him uncomfortable then, 
as you will see. His father chose the fifth 
commandment for their evening lesson. 


330 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Charlie wished he had chosen any one 
rather than that. “ Now,” thought he, 
“ father’s been saving up my scolding. I 
wish he wouldn’t; I’ll never do so again.” 
He had to learn that “ the way of transgres- 
sors is hard.” 

“Charlie, what is the fifth command- 
ment ?” 

With a very red face Charlie replied, 
“ ‘ Honor thy father and thy mother, that 
thy days may be long upon the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee/ ” 

“ What does ‘ honor ’ mean ?” 

“ Obey them, I suppose, sir.” 

“ What else ?” 

“ Respect them, sir ?” 

“ Yes. — Stephen, ‘ What is required in the 
fifth commandment ?’ ” 

Stephen often picked up the Catechism 
from his mother’s sewing-basket, and he 
could now recall every answer in the book. 
He replied: “‘The fifth commandment re- 
quireth the preserving the honor, and per- 
forming the duties belonging to every one 
in their several places and relations, as su- 
periors, inferiors, and equals.’ ” 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 331 

“ Then, father,” said Josie, “ it don’t mean 
children alone, does it ? I never thought of 
that before.” 

“ No,” replied her father ; “ mother and I 
have our duties to our children and to our 
servants ; and they have their duties toward 
us.” 

“ I never thought about it either,” said 
Stephen. 

“ I wonder if Charlie ever thought about 
it?” said Mr. Arnold, looking at Charlie, 
whose face was very red. 

“ Charlie is thinking about it now,” an- 
swered his mother. Charlie could not speak. 

“Now, Josie, one more: ‘What is the 
reason annexed — ’ ” 

“ You haven’t asked the ‘ forbidden,’ ” 
said Maggie, interrupting her father. 

“ You’re right, Maggie. — “ ‘ What is for- 
bidden,’ Josie?” 

“ ‘ The fifth commandment forbiddeth the 
neglecting of, or doing anything against, the 
honor or duty which belongs to every one 
in their several places and relations.’ ” 

“ Now, ‘ What is the reason annexed ? ’ ” 

Mr. Arnold looked at his wife as he spoke, 


332 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


and she answered his question : “ ‘ The rea- 
son annexed to the fifth commandment is, a 
promise of long life and prosperity (as far as 
it shall serve for God’s glory and their own 
good) to all such as keep this command- 
ment.’ ” 

After Mrs. Arnold answered this question 
there was silence for a moment. Each one 
thought of Charlie as they all looked at Mr. 
Arnold and wondered what he was going to 
say. When he did speak he asked Maggie, 
“ What do you understand about this com- 
mandment?” 

“ Why, father, we must do just what you 
and mother want us to.” 

“ Must you ever be disrespectful ?” 

“ No, father.” 

“ Or disobedient ?” 

“ No, father.” 

“ Must you do anything unkind to your 
mother and me?” 

“ Oh, never !” said Maggie, earnestly. 

“ Why not?” 

“ Oh, because God says so ; and it would 
be real mean.” 

“ Why would it be mean ?” 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 333 

“ Oh, father,” said Maggie, “ you both do 
so much for us every day.” 

Charlie could stand it no longer. “ Fa- 
ther,” he said, “ I am ashamed to look at 
you and mother. Punish me, and then I 
guess I’ll feel better.” 

Tears came into his mother’s eyes, and that 
made Charlie cry. 

“ Was it a punishment to wear your old 
clothes to church, Charlie?” 

“ Yes, sir ; I felt mean enough. But I’ll 
do it as long as you and mother say so, for 
I know I deserve it.” 

“ We do say so until it is time to get your 
heavy suit.” 

“ All right, father !” 

Maggie said, “ Father, how soon do you 
begin to wear winter clothes ?” 

Her father smiled, and told her that de- 
pended upon the season. Her mother made 
her feel better by telling her that in about 
four weeks it would probably be cold enough 
to put them on. 

Charlie gave a little sigh, but said noth- 
ing. His tears fell fast when he received a 
good-night kiss from his father and a warm 


334 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


embrace from his mother, but he was a wiser 
boy than when he so joyously meditated 
running away from his home to make a 
journey round the world. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


THE THOUGHT OF THE HEART. 

M AGGIE came home from Sabbath-school 
with a Child’s Paper containing a story 
on the seventh commandment. It pleased 
her so much that she read it to her mother ; 
and I am going to give it to you, every 
word of it: 

THE THOUGHT OF THE HEAET. 

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 

Edith was visiting her aunt Grey in the country. 
Other visitors were also at the farm, among them 
a very bright little girl of Edith’s own age who had 
traveled much and had seen many places and persons 
of interest. At first the young people seemed attract- 
ed to each other, and Aunt Grey was pleased to think 
that her niece was to have so agreeable a companion 
for the holidays. After a few days, however, she no- 
ticed that Edith shunned the society of Laura, and 
seemed ill at ease when forced to be with her. Fear- 
ing that some childish quarrel had interrupted the 

335 


336 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


course of their friendship, Mrs. Grey questioned Edith 
concerning her change of manner. 

“ Laura is not nice, auntie,” said Edith, blushing. 
“ She tells me things that are not fit to hear. I cannot 
like to be with her.” 

“ Of course not, if that is the case,” said Mrs. Grey, 
surprised and grieved. “ Who could have thought this 
of such a child !” 

“ She has met many people in her travels, auntie, 
and some of them have put bad thoughts in her mind. 
Mamma says I must never listen to naughty words, and 
that I must go away from any one who uses them be- 
fore me. So I have to keep away from Laura, auntie.” 

“ You may ask Laura to come with you to my room 
for a little talk, Edith,” said Mrs. Grey after a mo- 
ment’s thought. “ We will recite the commandments 
together. Perhaps we may do her some good.” 

When, according to her aunt’s request, Edith came 
with Laura to Mrs. Grey’s room, they found Mrs. Grey 
reading. After some pleasant words of welcome, that 
lady read aloud to them the story of a little girl who 
carried coals in her fair, white apron and sadly soiled 
it — this, too, in spite of the warning of her friend, who 
cautioned her, saying that however carefully one 
might handle coals, some of the smut would be sure to 
come off* and to stick to her clean hands and clothes, 
and defile them. 

Laura laughed when the story was ended, and said, 
“ What a silly girl, not to know that coals would soil, 
and, what is worse, that the stains on her white dress 
would not brush off!” 


THE THOUGHT OF THE HEART. 337 


“ I often think of this silly child,” said Mrs. Grey, 
“ when I hear of children who allow evil and impure 
words to be spoken to them or vulgar thoughts suggest- 
ed to their minds. A clean, pure mind is more to be 
desired than a fair, white garment, and impure thoughts 
sully and defile the mind more hopelessly than coals or 
pitch defile the clothes. And, as Laura says, the worst 
is that the stains do not brush off.” 

Both Laura and Edith blushed. 

“ Let us now repeat the commandments, as far as 
the seventh. On that one I shall have somewhat to 
say.” 

Then, beginning with Laura, Edith following, they 
recited in turn. The seventh fell to Laura, who prompt- 
ly repeated it : “ Thou shalt not commit adultery.” 

“ The sin so positively forbidden by this command- 
ment,” said Mrs. Grey, “ is one that has its beginnings 
in the very thing of which we were speaking — impure 
thought and vulgar speech. Adultery means unfaith- 
fulness to marriage-vows. Whoever breaks the solemn 
promise made at the marriage-altar commits adultery. 
But no evil action can be done before it is prompted by 
an evil thought. When you do wrong, which comes 
first — the act or the thought of the act ?” 

“ Why, of course,” said Laura, “ we must have a 
notion to do anything before doing it. The thought 
comes first.” 

“ True,” said Mrs. Grey. “ Evil acts are but the 
end of evil thoughts. Impure deeds are the natural 
consequences of impure thoughts. Adultery is the end 
of a sin of which an impure thought was the beginning. 

22 


338 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


Does God’s law forbid only the worst form of the sin, 
and yet permit its beginning ?” 

“ Oh no,” said Edith, “ for there could be no end- 
ing without first a beginning.” 

“That is just the point,” said Mrs. Grey. “Now 
tell me the beginning of any sin. What is it?” 

“ The thought of the heart, I suppose,” said Edith. 

“ Yes. If the thoughts of your heart are unclean, 
what kind of actions result ?” 

“ Unclean actions,” answered Edith. 

“ What, then, does this seventh commandment for- 
bid?” 

“ It forbids impure and evil thoughts in the heart,” 
said both the children very seriously. 

“What must we do in order to keep this law?” 

“Think no impure thoughts,” said Laura softly, 
“nor listen to unclean words. We must keep our 
minds pure.” 

“ Yes,” said Mrs. Grey. “ And if in the past we 
have not kept this law, but have bro’ en it by the be- 
ginning of the sin — the wrong thought — we must ask 
God’s forgiveness and his help for future time. We 
cannot undo our sin, but we can repent of it and for- 
sake it. Do we truly wish, from this time on, to keep 
this holy law ?” 

Edith and Laura answered “ Yes and with a hand 
on each child’s head, Mrs. Grey uttered the prayer that 
I hope will be echoed by every one who reads this 
story : 

“Lord, be merciful to us, and incline our heart to 
keep this law.” 


THE THOUGHT OF THE HEART. 339 

Mrs. Arnold told Maggie to give Charlie 
the story to read. 

When tea was over, and the family were 
gathered in the pleasant parlor, Mr. Arnold 
said he was glad there was no service that 
evening, for it was storming terribly. 

Mrs. Arnold took her usual seat upon the 
sofa, while Maggie and Charlie sat one on 
each side of her and leaned against her 
shoulders. Sometimes Maggie lay with 
her head in her mother’s lap, but she was 
apt to fall asleep if she took that position, 
especially if her mother stroked her hair. 

Mr. Arnold, Stephen and Josie began to 
read. This was a little unusual. Generally, 
they recited the Catechism as soon as they 
came in from tea. I suppose Mr. Arnold 
had something he wanted to finish before 
hearing the Catechism; and when Josie 
and Stephen saw him reading they began 
also to read. 

Mrs. Arnold talked in a low tone to Mag- 
gie and Charlie. Presently she asked them 
to repeat the commandments. When they 
came to the seventh, Maggie said, “ Mamma, 
I know now what that commandment means.” 


340 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ For children,” said mamma, “ it means 
not to say dirty, vulgar words nor do im- 
modest acts, and to try not to think vulgar 
thoughts. What does the Catechism say is 
forbidden in the seventh commandment ?” 

“ We haven’t got so far,” said Charlie, but 
father answered ; “ ‘ The seventh command- 
ment forbiddeth all unchaste thoughts, 
words and actions.’ ” 

“ What does ‘ unchaste ’ mean ?” asked 
Maggie. 

“ Impure,” answered mamma. “ What 
does the seventh commandment require?” 
And she looked at Mr. Arnold, who an- 
swered : “ ‘ The seventh commandment re- 
quireth the preservation of our own and 
our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech 
and behavior.’” 

“ I don’t understand what that means,” said 
Maggie, “ there’s so many big words in it.” 

“ Count them on your fingers,” said her 
father ; and he repeated very slowly the 
answer. 

Maggie counted aloud : “ ‘ Kequireth,’ 

one; ‘preservation,’ two; ‘chastity,’ three. 
I thought there were more.” 


THE THOUGHT OF THE HEART. 341 

“Only three,” said her father; “and I 
will tell you what they mean. To preserve 
means to keep or guard ; chastity means 
purity.” 

“And ‘requireth,’ papa?” 

“ Why, when we ask what a command- 
ment requireth we mean, What does it 
tell us to do ?” 

“And ‘forbid' means what we mustn't 
do,” said Charlie. 

“ Oh, I know that well enough, Charlie,” 
replied Maggie. 

“ Now,” said Mr. Arnold, “ I will give it 
to you in plain words : This seventh com- 
mandment tells Maggie and Charlie that 
they must be pure in their words, in 
their heart and in all they do, and 
that they must help each other to keep 
pure.” 

“ And why must they do this ?” asked 
their mother. 

Mrs. Arnold had a habit of asking ques- 
tions as if she did not know. The children 
thought she “ made believe ” because she liked 
papa's answers and wanted the children to hear 
them. 


342 THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 

“ I’m sure mamma knows,” Maggie often 
said. 

I think Maggie was right. 

Mr. Arnold “ made believe ” too, and an- 
swered as if Mrs. Arnold did not know. 
When Mrs. Arnold asked, “ Why must 
they do this?” he said, “ First, just be- 
cause God commands it; and then there 
is a beautiful promise to the pure in heart. 
— What is it, Josie?” 

All this time Josie and Stephen had been 
holding their books as if they were reading, 
but their father thought they were really 
listening. And so they were. Josie an- 
swered as soon as she was spoken to, and 
said, Blessed are the pure in heart: for 
they shall see God.’ ” 

“ None but the pure in heart, Josie ?” 

“ I suppose not, sir.” 

“ And what does the disciple Jesus loved 
best say about purity?” 

. No one answered. Mrs. Arnold waited a 
moment, and then said, And every man 
that hath this hope in him purifietli himself, 
even as He is pure.’ ” 

“ Who is pure ?” asked Mr. Arnold. 


THE THOUGHT OF THE HEART. 343 

“ God/’ answered Mrs. Arnold. 

“What hope was John talking about?” 
asked Mr. Arnold. 

And his wife answered, “The hope of 
seeing God.” 

The children liked to hear father and 
mother ask each other questions ; it seemed 
to make everything so plain. 

Charlie had been very attentive to this 
conversation, and now he said, “ Any more 
reasons, papa?” 

“ Are not those enough, Charlie ?” his 
father asked. 

“ Yes, papa, but — ” 

“ I know another one,” interrupted Mag- 
gie : “ God hears and sees all we do.” 

“ Yes, children. Everything you do and 
say is seen and heard by a pure and holy 
God.” 

“And now let us have a little singing,” 
said Mrs. Arnold. 

After singing until they were tired, Mr. 
Arnold said : “ What is your Catechism 
question for next Sabbath ?” 

“ We have had plenty of Catechism,” 
said Stephen ; “ don’t have any more now.” 


344 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Too much,” said Charlie. 

“ Why, do you get tired of it, Charlie ?” 
asked his father. 

Charlie hesitated. 

“Say just what you think, Charlie,” said 
Mr. Arnold. 

“ Well, father, I do get tired of it some- 
times. I wish you would save it for Sunday 
talk, and not have it on week-days/’ 

“ Very well, Charlie ; we will make it a 
rule that Catechism shall only be explained 
on Sundays.” 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE LOST BAG COMES HOME. 

A FTER breakfast on Monday morning 
Charlie was sent by his mother to do 
an errand before school. On the way he 
met Joe Hastings, who said, “ Where’ve ye 
been ?” and Joe stood right in his way, as 
if he did not mean to let Charlie go with- 
out answering him. 

“ Been home,” answered Charlie, who 
never cared to talk about his journey to 
Boston. 

“ Ain’t you been running away ?” asked 
Joe. 

“ What do you know about it ?” said 
Charlie. 

“ Know somethin’ you’d like to know, 
youngster. I’ve watched ye going to church 
every Sunday in your school - clothes. 
They’re good enough, I’m sure ; I’d like 

345 


346 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


as good. But then you used to look nobby 
when you went to church. Would ye like 
the bully jacket back again ?” 

“ Joe, what do you mean ? Did you pick 
them up ?” asked Charlie in surprise. 

“ Don’t let your dad do nothing to me — 
will ye now ? — and I’ll give you back every- 
thing.” 

“ Will you, Joe ? How did you happen 
to get them ?” 

“ Well, you see — You won’t let me get 
took up for it?” 

“ Oh no, Joe ; only let’s have them back 
again.” 

“ You see, you dropped ’em out o’ the 
window.” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And I was hanging around waiting to 
hear ye all sing and play on the pianny.” 

“ Were you, Joe ?” 

“ Why, yes. You see, we don’t have 
nothing home, and I don’t see no good 
stayin’ there ; so I just hang around to 
look in fine houses like your’n, and hear 
the music whenever they have any.” 

“ And you picked up my bag ?” 


THE LOST BAG COMES HOME. 347 

“ Yes ; I’ve had your good clothes ever 
since. Won’t none of ’em fit me, only the 
’kerchiefs ; I’ve used those. But I’ll bring 
’em all back ; I’ll bring ’em under the 
window to-night.” 

“ I know mother ’ll let you keep the 
pocket-handkerchiefs,” said Charlie, “ if you 
would like to have them.” 

“ ’Course I would,” said Joe — “ never had 
one in my life before. And it does look gen- 
tleman-like to pull one out and whisk it 
around.” 

Charlie’s mother had bought handker- 
chiefs and collars to take the place of those 
he had lost. 

“ Now come, tell a feller. They say ye 
went to Boston.” 

“ Yes, Joe : it’s a fine city,” said Charlie. 

“ Why didn’t ye stay there ?” 

Charlie made no reply. 

“ Did ye live in a grander house when ye 
were there?” asked Joe. 

“Oh, it was different, Joe; it was the 
largest hotel you ever saw.” 

“ Cost lots of money, I bet.” 

“ Yes, lots.” 


348 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


“ Why didn’t ye stay there ?” repeated 
Joe. 

“ Why, Joe, I’ll just tell you now — don’t 
tell anybody — but our money gave out, you 
know, and the boys got homesick.” 

“ You didn’t?” 

“ Yes, a little. I must hurry now, Joe, 
or I’ll be late at school. Don’t forget the 
bag to-night.” 

“ No.” 

“ I wish you’d brought it Saturday, for 
now I’m going to have a new suit before 
next Sunday.” 

“ Another ?” 

“ Yes, a warm one for winter,” said 
Charlie, hurrying on. 

“ I say, Charlie !” 

“ Well ?” 

“ I eat up all the goodies; you don’t care?” 

“ No, Joe.” 

“ And I spent the money ; I’m sorry 
about that.” 

“ So am I, Joe. But no matter.” 

Charlie started off at a brisk step. 

“ Come back a minute, won’t ye ?” said 
Joe. 


THE LOST BAO COMES HOME . 349 

“ I’ll be late,” said Charlie, turning 
around. “ What do you want ?” 

“ I only wanted to say, before ye run 
away ag’in come up and stay a while in 
our old shanty. I guess you’ll like your 
home well enough to stay in it after that. 
I’d like to change places.” 

Charlie said not a word in reply, and Joe 
went on his way. 

The bag was brought home in the even- 
ing, and Charlie carried it up stairs. He 
took out the clothes, and then went down 
stairs and told his mother all about it. 
Two days after this Charlie’s new suit came 
home. 

Before I bid you good-bye I must tell you 
what Mr. Arnold did for Joe. After hear- 
ing Charlie’s story about Joe and the bag, 
Mr. Arnold went to the poor hovel and 
talked with Joe. Then he bought a new 
suit of clothes and gave them to Charlie 
to carry to Joe. It was hard to tell who 
was the happier when this present was 
given ; Charlie seemed to enjoy it as much 
as Joe, if not more. Mr. Arnold also sent 


350 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


for the bags belonging to Nat and the other 
Joe. He paid their bill at the great hotel, 
and then the proprietor expressed the bags 
to Mr. Arnold. 

All three boys were very grateful, as well 
as thoroughly ashamed of their folly, and 
promised never again to run away. 

Mr. Arnold told Charlie he must try and 
get Joe to go to Sabbath-school. Charlie 
thought this would be a good thing for Joe ; 
so he invited him one Saturday afternoon 
when he met Joe in the street. 

“ Now, Joe,” he said, “ father wants you 
to go to church and Sabbath-school.” 

“ Oh no ; I can’t do that.” 

“ Why not ?” 

Joe was silent. 

“ I’ll be here to-morrow at nine o’clock, 
and I’ll stay till you come with me.” 

“ They’ll all be strange to me ; I won 5 t 
know where to sit,” said Joe, speaking in a 
hesitating manner. 

“ I’ll fix that. Father says you are to 
sit by me in our class.” 

Joe opened his eyes at this. 

Charlie saw that he was beginning to 


THE LOST BAG COMES HOME. 351 

waver, and he urged him until Joe prom- 
ised to come. 

The next morning Charlie, with Joe 
dressed in his new suit, went to the Sab- 
bath-school. After school Joe was led into 
church, where, from a seat in the gallery, 
he listened to the services with a strange 
feeling of awe and pleasure. This day be- 
gan a new life for Joe. 

In the next book I will tell you more 
about him, for I am going to write another 
book, and its title will be Paul Morris . 

Perhaps you would like to hear more 
about Eddie. I once thought of writing 
a book about him and calling it Eddie’s 
Capers, for Maggie said that it would sound 
just like a story-book to write out all 
Eddie’s capers. 

And why didn’t I write the book ? Be- 
cause you all know mischief enough without 
my telling you of Eddie’s. Besides, Eddie 
is getting cured of his capers ; and I will 
tell you by and by how he was cured. 

Paul Morris must have a whole book. 
We will not call it Paul’s Capers, for he 
did not have any. He was the sweetest, 


352 


THE ARNOLD FAMILY. 


brightest boy I ever knew. And he could- 
n’t cut capers, because he was lame, you 
know. 

While Paul was on the ocean Grandma 
Morris died. So the little boy never saw 
his dear, good grandmother. 


THE END, 













































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